Watched Over or Over-watched? Open Street CCTV in Australia

Wilson, Denise; Sutton, Amber

doi:10.1375/0004865041188979

Cited by 7 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…The ‘on-the-job’ training for CCTV operators in Cairns is concerning but consistent with reports in other studies 8 10 12 13. Training to enhance camera operators' awareness of critical behavioural cues during the victim selection and baiting stages may enhance responsiveness and, using a continuous quality improvement approach, reduce the time taken for security to arrive at the assault location.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Most CCTV systems in Australia and the UK have the reduction of alcohol-related violence and disorder as a goal,6–8 but evaluations of the effectiveness of these systems in reducing injuries are hard to find 4–6 8–10. Operational practices in open-space CCTV camera rooms have been identified as critical for promptly detecting antisocial behaviour and violence8 9 11 and are a growing area of research 11–13. Evidence suggests that violence in LNEPs is a staged process14 and that observers of CCTV footage can differentiate between behavioural sequences ending in violence and matched sequences which do not 15.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence suggests that violence in LNEPs is a staged process14 and that observers of CCTV footage can differentiate between behavioural sequences ending in violence and matched sequences which do not 15. Real-time communication between the monitoring room and on-the-ground security has been found to facilitate rapid deployment of security to the site of an assault,6 8 offering considerable potential to limit physical harm 8. Importantly, there is evidence that city trauma services experience decreased assault presentations when these processes are in place 16…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of an open-space CCTV system in limiting alcohol-related assault injuries in a late-night entertainment precinct in a tropical Queensland city, Australia

et al. 2011

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Closed circuit television (CCTV) systems which incorporate real-time communication links between camera room operators and on-the-ground security may limit injuries resulting from alcohol-related assault. This pilot study examined CCTV footage and operator records of security responses for two periods totalling 22 days in 2010-2011 when 30 alcohol-related assaults were recorded. Semistructured discussions were conducted with camera room operators during 18 h of observation. Camera operators were proactive, efficiently directing street security to assault incidents. The system intervened in 40% (n=12) of alcohol-related assaults, limiting possible injury. This included three incidents judged as potentially preventable. A further five (17%) assault incidents were also judged as potentially preventable, while 43% (n=13) happened too quickly for intervention. Case studies describe security intervention in each category. Further research is recommended, particularly to evaluate the effects on preventing injuries through targeted awareness training to improve responsiveness and enhance the preventative capacity of similar CCTV systems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of an open-space CCTV system in limiting alcohol-related assault injuries in a late-night entertainment precinct in a tropical Queensland city, Australia

et al. 2011

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“…Closed-circuit television is extremely expensive, accounting for three-quarters of anti-crime expenditure in the UK totalling hundreds of millions of pounds [6]. It also raises concerns about privacy and social impact [30]. How much of the crime reductions which follow the installation of closed-circuit television systems could be achieved by a cheaper intervention similar to that used here is at present unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

‘Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You’: Impact of a Simple Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft

2012

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BackgroundBicycle theft is a serious problem in many countries, and there is a lack of evidence concerning effective prevention strategies. Displaying images of ‘watching eyes’ has been shown to make people behave in more socially desirable ways in a number of settings, but it is not yet clear if this effect can be exploited for purposes of crime prevention. We report the results of a simple intervention on a university campus where signs featuring watching eyes and a related verbal message were displayed above bicycle racks.Methodology and Principal FindingsWe installed durable signs at three locations which had experienced high levels of bicycle theft, and used the rest of the university campus as a control location. Reported thefts were monitored for 12 months before and after the intervention. Bicycle thefts decreased by 62% at the experimental locations, but increased by 65% in the control locations, suggesting that the signs were effective, but displaced offending to locations with no signs. The Odds Ratio for the effect of the intervention was 4.28 (95% confidence interval 2.04–8.98), a large effect compared to other place-based crime prevention interventions.Conclusions and SignificanceThe effectiveness of this extremely cheap and simple intervention suggests that there can be considerable crime-reduction benefits to engaging the psychology of surveillance, even in the absence of surveillance itself. Simple interventions for high-crime locations based on this principle should be considered as an adjunct to other measures, although a possible negative consequence is displacement of offending.

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“…19 However, the role of central Government is not always decisive: in other countries, initiatives were primarily from local governments. This is the case in Australia, where local governments were nevertheless supported-financially and methodologically-by Federal government (Wilson and Sutton 2004), and also in France. Encouraged by the central Government, who offered them security partnerships, and called upon to act by their communities, local governments took hold of security issues-all the more willingly on account of their greater powers brought about by decentralisation-and made an attempt to develop their own Policy tools, among which included open-street CCTV (Germain 2008).…”

Section: Implementing Open-street Cctv: Conditions Of Installationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A prosperous ‘business’. The success of CCTV through the eyes of international literature

Germain

Dumoulin²,

Douillet³

2013

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This article deals with a paradox: video surveillance becomes widespread, in more and more numerous social and national spaces, while its effects in terms of crime prevention and\or law enforcement and community reassurance are not demonstrated. Through a critical analysis of the international literature on CCTV, this article attempts to identify the reasons advanced to explain the ‘success’ of this technology. Three kinds of approach, which embody three ways of defining the political and social impact of CCTV, can be distinguished: surveillance studies, impact analyses and use studies. This paper discusses these works and the answers they bring to the understanding of CCTV development. It claims that micro-level case study analysis allows grasping subtly the locally observable mechanisms by which new actors can be enrolled in the device and new legitimizations are made possible.

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Watched Over or Over-watched? Open Street CCTV in Australia

Cited by 7 publications

References 5 publications

The role of an open-space CCTV system in limiting alcohol-related assault injuries in a late-night entertainment precinct in a tropical Queensland city, Australia

The role of an open-space CCTV system in limiting alcohol-related assault injuries in a late-night entertainment precinct in a tropical Queensland city, Australia

‘Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You’: Impact of a Simple Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft

A prosperous ‘business’. The success of CCTV through the eyes of international literature

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