Phil Chamberlain

Yet there has been barely a murmur of protest. Speed cameras, such as the one on the Batheaston bypass outside Bath, may be routinely vandalised but CCTV has resisted most people’s ire.

Is it because people accept they are a valuable crime-fighting tool or simply forget that they are being watched?

The question of effectiveness has not been settled satisfactorily.

Criminologist Gloria Laycock, director of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College London, said unless properly maintained CCTV can be "worse than useless".

But the police are convinced CCTV is a useful tool. For one thing the images can often persuade people to plead guilty and save money and court time. Those figures are not easy to collate and so may not show up in statistics.

A spokesman for Bristol City Council said there were no doubt the cameras performed a vital role.

"The scheme has proved its effectiveness over the years in reducing criminal and anti social behaviour, and enhancing public safety," she said.

However a report by the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, which was based on Home Office research, revealed that of 24 studies carried out in city centres, only 13 showed crime had fallen since CCTV cameras were installed. Crime rates rose significantly in four other cities.

Research in the London borough of Newham found crime was not generally displaced because much of it was spur of the moment and the same opportunities were not available.

A four-year study of CCTV in Glasgow concluded that the powers of the cameras had been "over-hyped".

That does not mean they don’t work, merely too great a claim was made for their abilities. Now CCTV advocates make more realistic claims.

Peter Fry is director the national CCTV User Group whose members include most local authorities (including Bristol and Bath), police forces (but not Avon and Somerset) and other organisations so that industry-wide codes of behaviour and best practice can be developed.

He says both the Jamie Bulger murder and the Brixton nailbomber may not have been caught without CCTV cameras but believes the real success lies in reducing the fear of crime.

"There is still a lot of debate going on about crime reduction and I think it is true to say it works better in some areas than others," he says. "The reason is people see CCTV as the cameras however it is also operators, plus training, plus communication links, plus intelligence sharing, plus partnerships, plus liaison with the police

"The real reason for the variation is you have to get all these links right to get the system working to maximum effect. To be honest some don't and hence the variability. You can have the best and latest kit in the world but if operators aren't trained or there is no police response it's a waste of money.

"When we do assessments of how good control rooms are we have a 35 page checklist with about 15-20 topics per page."

However the ability of people to use the technology effectively is also open to doubt.

Tom Troscianko is a professor of psychology at the University of Bristol and has jointly produced a paper looking at how well people can predict violent events by studying CCTV footage.

That study found a group of Bristol psychology undergraduates performed almost as well as a group of security personnel in predicting whether specially-chosen footage would lead to a violent incident.

The study also suggested that women were generally better at reading visual cues than men.

In Britain there are an estimated four million cameras, one for every 14 people. That is higher ratio than America. And we’ve had a decade to perfect the art of looking.

But according to Peter Fry we’ve some way to go yet.

"Go to a casino in the USA and there are possibly 2,000 cameras and the skills in body language those guys have are incredible In the diamond mines of South Africa and on the picking belts they look at people arriving at work, trained by psychologists to look for the mannerisms people have when contemplating an action which is going to make them vastly rich, or go to prison, what they are wearing, their demeanour etc.

"The UK has much to learn from all these scenarios."

This country is also out of step with our Continental neighbours in our lack of concern.

Prof Troscianko says: "Other European countries, such as Germany, have a much more sceptical approach," he says. "Perhaps we have a naive trust in our authorities and the Germans have less?"

Professor Clive Norris, deputy director of the Centre for Criminological Research in Sheffield, forecast in 2001 that Britain would see a doubling in the number of cameras by this year. In fact they quadrupled. He believes there needs to be a wider debate about CCTV systems.

"It is about much more than crime. It enables people to be tracked and monitored and harassed and socially excluded on the basis that they do not fit into the category of people that a council or shopping centre wants to see in a public space."

And that concern is shared by the CCTV User Group which does not want to lose the passive acceptance the public currently give to cameras.

"Up to now the image of CCTV is more of a benevolent father. But with publication of any kind of abuse the public could loose confidence - that is why we as a group are totally against the release of any video images for entertainment purposes," says Mr Fry.

"It is also why we have lobbied long and hard for the licensing of CCTV operators to be a separate category than the licensing of security guards.

"CCTV operators are not security guards but need special skills that only come with in-depth training."

The question of effectiveness may be better resolved when Prof Martin Gill of the Scarman Centre and delivers a long-awaited report to the Home Office next year on crime reduction and cameras.

But will anybody care?

PANEL – Bristol cameras

A total of 64 cameras now cover the whole central area of Bristol. That ranges from Clifton Down Shopping precinct, Whiteladies Road through to Stokes Croft, Old Market, Castle Park, and Prince Street.

The scheme is monitored and recorded 24 hours per day, every day of the year by the City Council. The cameras can be moved to view through 360 degrees and can zoom in to obtain clear views of any incidents in their vicinity.

The overall scheme cost was almost £1,200,000.

PANEL – Bath cameras

There are 59 cameras which cover Bath city centre and the outlying towns of Radstock, Midsomer Norton and Keynsham.

They are linked either by wires of microwave to a control room in Bath where they are monitored all day, every day.

During 2003 there were 700 requests from the Police to view videotapes of recorded material for incidents which was nearly double the year before. From these a total of 205 tapes were supplied for evidence. However the number of incidents the control room recorded at 1,248 was barely different from the year before and the number arrested resulting from those incidents was down to 218.

PANEL – Inside the control room

There are no radios playing and only a few work-related posters. A little fridge, tea and coffee making facilities and a rest room are the only real home comforts. A refurbishment is planned but this is hardly the place where you’d expect luxury.

The control room for Bath and North East Somerset Council’s CCTV system is dominated by a bank of television screens; three deep and in six columns. Sitting in front, like television producers with their own personal screens and an array of switches, are the two monitors. They are midway through a standard eight hour shift.

It’s a weekday afternoon and the cameras, sweeping in random patterns, pick up streets busy with shoppers.

Suddenly a grinning face looms right in front of one that must be 30 feet up over a Bath’s car parks. It’s just a technician in a cherry-picker checking the camera’s mounting.

A spokesman for the council’s CCTV system says: "We regularly evaluate it and ask for people’s views and there is public acceptance for CCTV.

"It is not Big Brother. The only people who should worry are those who have something to hide."

Contrary to popular belief there is a long list of what the council does not do with its cameras either because of legislation or its own code of practice. That includes giving footage to the media, tracking ‘undesirables’, keeping tapes longer than 31 day, allowing any policeman to be given footage without proper authorisation, spying on people’s homes and giving access to the control room without good cause.

Figures generally show that there are three times more crimes outside of the CCTV area than in it. Interestingly that figure remains steady, so a rise elsewhere in Bath will be mimicked with a rise in front of the cameras as well.

The city’s busiest camera is the one at the junction of Milsom Street and George Street, the nexus for the city’s most popular clubs and pubs.

That comes into its own at weekends when the CCTV monitors say everything changes and a third person is added to the shift to cope with the work.

One of the monitors, 43-year-old Gary (not his real name) says: "You pick up on behaviour patterns. You get used to looking for unusual or different patterns."

All the CCTV staff are given training and have the option of taking qualifications in the job.

Like most of his colleagues Gary, who is Bath born, has not told anyone outside of his family what he does.

There is a rasp from the radio and a security guard requests help because they have a suspected shoplifter.

The operator toggles a little joystick and zooms in the shop doorway. The security guard asks for police help and the CCTV operator contacts the police station to relay the message.

It’s an example of the security teams working together but the council spokesman freely admits that it also shows some of the limitations of CCTV. In this case it would only keep an eye on the door in case the suspect tried to flee.

"It’s not just about crime though," says the spokesman. "We’re often called upon to trace missing children, or patients who have gone missing from the Royal United Hospital. We keep an eye on traffic, we always follow emergency vehicles through the city."

The cameras are designed to be prominent to counter feelings of covert surveillance but operators believe most people forget they are there.

The spokesman says: "According to our yearly surveys the public are keen on them and would like to see it extended to areas such as schools.

"I don’t think we’ll ever see a reduction in their number."

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