CCTV from buses used to investigate three crimes in 12 months in Havering
CCTV footage was used to investigate less than one per cent of crimes on Havering’s buses in the last year.
Despite around 400 crimes a year being committed on buses in the borough, and each double-decker bus being fitted with around seven hi-tech cameras each, it appears that the the cameras are hardly used when investigating crime.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request from the Recorder, Transport for London (TfL) have said that just three crimes were investigated using the footage between September 2010 and August 2011.
Intrusive
Nick Pickles, director of the Big Brother Watch group, said: “As these figures once again remind us, CCTV is an expensive, intrusive and largely ineffectual way of protecting the public.
You may also want to watch:
“Despite a much higher number of crimes being committed, CCTV was only requested in a handful of cases, demonstrating its ineffectiveness as both a deterrent and a tool for the police investigating crime.
He added: “CCTV is not a substitute for real policing, and figures like this only reaffirm the need for a debate about how the public can be better protected from crime.”
Most Read
- 1 Bekash restaurant ranked best curry house in Havering on Tripadviser
- 2 Best friends open beauty academy in Romford Shopping Hall
- 3 Police officer sacked after 'encouraging friend to lie about collision'
- 4 Shopkeepers and customers celebrate as Romford high streets reopen
- 5 Mayoral election 2021: how will candidates improve east London?
- 6 Hundreds of shoppers queue outside Primark in Romford as restrictions ease
- 7 Neighbour’s fury as mountain of rubbish piles up outside cottage
- 8 Top Havering pubs open with beer gardens
- 9 Mayoral election 2021: 'Free London' candidate Laurence Fox visits Romford
- 10 Could you be former Brentwood man's long lost relative?
However a spokesman for Havering police said: “We are trying to verify these figures. They don’t seem to tally with our own records.”
The TfL response said that police had requested the footage five times in the last year and they had provided it on three occassions.
Crime on Havering buses rose by three per cent between 2009 and 2010.
