[SantaGanstag]

Some interesting points being argued here but i think the main issue is being missed?

I live in a borough of London and i work in another borough of London, i have seen first hand how CCTV is a failure!
CCTV will be introduced on the merit it will deter criminals and gather valuable footage of crimes being committed, it will assist in the capture and prosecution of criminals who are caught.

This will firstly lead to a cut back of physical policing, you will see less patrols and policing taking place on the streets.
This in turn will lead secondly to people who are not afraid of the CCTV still committing antisocial behaviour and moving other illegal activities to more less policed areas.
This will then lead to 'no go' areas for policing that then become a hot spot for criminals.
This then leads to the **** state that London is in as all policing is then no longer proactive but reactive and so they arrive late if at all?

The CCTV will a majority of the time be proven to be unpermissible in court as the evidence was not in suitable lighting and so you couldn't see the accused clearly enough, poor weather conditions limited the veiw so the incident was only partially filmed or the 'circumstances' were incorrect for it to be submitted.

These are all factors that have blighted the British justice system over the use of CCTV.

You need policemen and women with large sticks, guns, vests, mace, pepper sprays and dogs with pointy teeth on the streets dealing with issues first hand and re-enforcing the paranoia in criminals that any moment now a cop could walk around the corner and catch them in the act!

CCTV is an epic fail on behalf of proactive and preventive policing, i have see so first hand.

For the record if your doing nothing wrong then sure you got nothing to hide, but seriously the bigger issue is what about the people who cant be arse to hide what they do and still continue to do so?