Understanding Car Parks, Crime and CCTV: Evaluation Lessons from Safer Cities

The Home Office Police Research Group (PRG) was formed in 1992 to carry out and manage research relevant to the work of the police service and Home Office Policy Divisions. One of the major Police Department divisions which acts as customer for the PRG is the Home Office Crime Prevention Unit which was formed in 1983 to promote preventive action against crime. It has a particular responsibility to disseminate information on crime prevention topics. The object of the present series of occasional papers is to present research material in a way which should help and inform practitioners, whose work can help reduce crime. Foreword The Safer Cities Programme is a Home Office crime prevention initiative which currently operates through 20 projects in England. The projects provide financial and other support for a wide variety of local crime prevention schemes. This report is the first 'thematic' study of such schemes. The effectiveness of closed circuit television (CCTV) in car parks was chosen for study reflecting the importance of controlling car-related offending and the increasing interest in CCTV as a crime management tool. The results are encouraging and suggest that CCTV can, in certain circumstances, make a useful contribution to crime control. But perhaps one of the most valuable lessons from the report is the illustration of the need to consider the precise reasons why CCTV might help to prevent crime in a particular case. As the report shows, even with a relatively simple measure such as CCTV there are a variety of ways in which it could contribute to crime control. Which of these ways is most relevant will often depend on local circumstances and the nature of the local car crime problem. This thought provoking report valuably brings out the need to consider these interactions carefully if value for money in crime prevention is to be achieved and if we are to learn from experience. Acknowledgements Each of the car parks included in this study was visited and discussed with local personnel administering the systems. I am grateful to all those who patiently answered questions about them. I should also like to thank those in Safer Cities projects who helped assemble the data analysed here. They were uncomplaining in responding to requests to chase up information. They also kindly commented on those parts of an earlier draft relating to car parks to which they had contributed funding. Finally, read complete …