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Reviewing CCTV footage of bicycle thefts an inefficient use of time say Cambridge policeBikes at Cambridge Station (CC licensed by mattbuck4950)

Reviewing CCTV footage of bicycle thefts an inefficient use of time say Cambridge police

Statistics indicate that other approaches are more likely to result in prosecution
by Alex Bowden
Fri, Feb 20, 2015 16:17
10

Cambridge police say that it is not worth reviewing CCTV footage of bikes being stolen, reports the Cambridge News. Officers will instead direct their efforts towards proactive police work and the patrolling of cycle theft hotspots.

Detective Chief Inspector Lorraine Parker announced the change in policy.

"We have studied our success in cycle crime prosecutions over six months and the results conclusively show that proactive police work and hotspot patrolling are far more effective than some traditional investigation methods.

"CCTV for the purpose of a successful prosecution has to be of sufficient quality to prove 'beyond all reasonable doubt' that the identification of the suspect is reliable. As such, we have made a decision to approach cycle crime from a prevention and disruption point of view.

"If there are factors which would make a prosecution or return of goods more likely, such as having a named suspect, the stolen bike being found for sale on the internet or being near to a known good quality CCTV camera, then of course we modify our response.”

But some local cyclists were left puzzled by the change. Richard Taylor wondered what the problem was.

"Are CCTV images not of sufficient quality? Are the police unable to identify bike thieves even once they've got an image of them? Do the police, and courts, lack the computer equipment, and skills, needed to deal with video evidence?"

Another local cyclist, David Cleevely, who is a founder of Cambridge Angels, a group of wealthy investors, appreciated the technology’s shortcomings, but said that there were innovative solutions which might one day be of use.

"I always listen to the professionals about this sort of thing on the basis that they know what they are talking about. CCTV is held up as a panacea for crime but in practical terms, as the police commander says, it has its limitations in particular because of the amount of time it takes to examine.

"There is the technology here in Cambridge, and I have seen it, that allows facial and gait recognition that can be automatically transmitted to police."

Cleevely said the technology in question could track the way a person approaches, picks up and walks away with a bicycle and distinguish between owners and thieves.

Police data revealed that between May 2013 and April 2014 there were 781 bikes reported stolen in the CB1 postcode area and 564 in CB2.

Parker said that the time saved by not reviewing CCTV footage would allow police to focus their presence and activity in the areas which suffer a disproportionately high amount of cycle crime as well as in educating people about cycle crime prevention.

Cambridge
Lorraine Parker
cctv
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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10 comments

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localsurfer | 9 years ago
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Sounds weird, but the police are right - CCTV is crap, and a complete waste of money. I had two bikes, locked to each other fore-and-aft, stolen from outside my town centre flat.

Two council cameras covered my front door, one more each at the end of the street, four more on the pub across the road.

None of them got anything remotely useable.

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tarquin_foxglove | 9 years ago
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At work we spent approx £1k per camera on an internal system, so we'd have "evidence level" images if we were broken into.

When we were broken into, the images were unable to assist with identification as they covered their faces with scarfs/hoods.

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mikroos | 9 years ago
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If the decision is based on an analysis of the efficiency of available methods, why do you try to be smarter than the Police? And first of all, nobody said "we won't review CCTV footage anymore", it's rather "we know better methods so we'll start with them"!

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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They really are hopeless lazy fuckers.

I was unlocking my bike getting myself ready to ride home when I notice adjacent to me a crappy not locked up Schwinn road bike with flat tyres, snapped brake cable and lights left on. Then a few minutes later a dip shit young couple rocked up and began to fiddle with the bike, but they obviously didn't know what they were doing so I eye balled them. Then the girl who could have been at school noticed me watching and flashed a Cambs police warrant card at me and told me to pay no attention to them. The young boy with her then flashed his warrant card at me as well. He told me they were trying to get the bike stolen but weren't having much luck. I told them no one would steal that piece of crap not least because both it's tyres were flat! The said they had been trying all afternoon and evening to try to get some one to pinch it without luck despite leaving it totally unlocked for hours and hours. WTF! Then I told them to kindly take it elsewhere as I didn't want them inviting thieves to where I leave my bike as I didn't want it targeted or nicked. They eventually took the bike and themselves off some where else. They really were as thick as pigshit.

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FatFreddie | 9 years ago
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This could be crowd sourced - get enough people involved and they'd only need to watch a few minutes a week to identify suspicious activity. The police would then have a much reduced amount of video to review...
Probably need to be nationwide to make it a sensible project.

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dnmvisser | 9 years ago
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I wonder what all thousands of cameras are used for then?

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Stumps | 9 years ago
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I've said it before cctv is only good if you get a clear image of the offender. If the camera is 200 to 300 metres away no amount of studying it will be able to id an offender.

Its not like ncis on tv, if an image is shite, its shite and no amount of tinkering will change that and in general the council supplied cameras are shite quality because they wont pay for good ones.

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Dropped replied to Stumps | 9 years ago
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stumps wrote:

I've said it before cctv is only good if you get a clear image of the offender. If the camera is 200 to 300 metres away no amount of studying it will be able to id an offender.

Its not like ncis on tv, if an image is shite, its shite and no amount of tinkering will change that and in general the council supplied cameras are shite quality because they wont pay for good ones.

Couldn't agree more, some of the images are so poor the perpetrator could be Paddington Bear for all the detail you could make out. It's much better for the Police to spend their time doing proactive work than sitting for hours squinting at useless blurred images. I'm not a copper and the police service has some major problems to address but this is not one of them.

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runskiprun | 9 years ago
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Cops too lazy to do their damn jobs shocker. so what if I have insurance on it, if my bike gets lifted then I pay increased premiums. *shakes head* Cops are part of the problem.

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Sanderstorm | 9 years ago
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By saying this, the police have now removed the deterrent element of having CCTV next to bike racks. 41

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