Retail security: Behind every CCTV camera that works is an actual pair of eyes

FIRST Security’s Scott La Franchie writes that international research indicates that CCTV cameras work, but they work better when they’re part of an integrated solution involving people.

In my previous article, which was part of a series on the recent spate of ram raids, I wrote that understanding perpetrator psychology is key to selecting the most effective retail store security measures.

In that article, I cited the widely cited 2005 research by UK academic Gavin Butler who conducted interviews with convicted commercial burglars in order to identify the types of decisions involved in deciding how to carry out an offence.

When participants in the study were asked what security systems and measures deterred them from undertaking a burglary, among the responses were security guards (67%), overlooked premises (52%), CCTV (41%), PIR (passive infrared) sensors (37%), alarmed windows (19%), alarmed doors (15%), and bolted doors (4%).

Interestingly, Butler commented that both security guards and premises overlooking the target “involve people rather than physical or electronic systems”, and that the deterrent value of CCTV is “dependent on the human role in monitoring it.”

“The biggest risk perceived by an offender is being caught,” he notes, “and this risk is increased by the possibility of being watched.”

Butler’s research highlights a key distinction in terms of the usefulness of CCTV as a crime deterrence and prevention tool. CCTV that is monitored or is otherwise part of a set of integrated security controls that includes ‘watching’ is seen by criminals as a turn-off, whereas CCTV in the absence of a human pair of eyes isn’t.

While Butler’s was a relatively early study involving insights into the efficacy of CCTV as a crime deterrent, its conclusions appear to have been supported in several studies since.

Questions over the efficacy of CCTV as a crime deterrent in Aotearoa New Zealand were raised in a recent Radio New Zealand (RNZ) in-depth report on CCTV “The Streets Have Eyes”. The report cited a 2017 Ministry of Justice Evidence Brief in relation to CCTV, which drew its conclusions from three international meta-analyses of CCTV (which covered a range of property and violent crimes in addition to commercial theft).

The Evidence Brief noted that the majority of the analyses identified that “CCTV can be effective at reducing crime when tailored to a specific context.” It further observed that the majority of these studies “were also based on the use of actively monitored cameras” (ie. where personnel watched the monitors linked to cameras in real-time).

“Monitored CCTV can enable a greater proportion of crime to come to the attention of Police,” states the Evidence Brief, “and early detection helps facilitate the co-ordination of responses to incidents as they are occurring.”

In a subsequent 2019 meta-analysis published in the journal Criminology & Public Policy, and involving 76 studies, found that “CCTV schemes incorporating active monitoring generated larger effect sizes [more significant reductions in crime] than passive systems. It also found that schemes “deploying multiple interventions alongside CCTV generated larger effect sizes than schemes deploying single or no other interventions”.

Whether a property or a public space is surveilled by CCTV monitored by security officers in a control room, a monitoring centre or by police, or accompanied by security guarding or patrols providing additional ‘eyes on the ground’, it is more likely to reduce crime than non-monitored CCTV or CCTV operating in the absence of other security controls.

Ultimately, this is not to say that unmonitored CCTV isn’t of any use, but its utility is in relation to investigations and evidentiary purposes after the crime has been committed. This, according to available research, delivers negligible deterrence value.

Ultimately, security measures are least effective when used as ‘point solutions’, and are most effective when deployed as part of a range of measures, and CCTV is no exception.

FIRST Security is trusted to provide security guarding and patrol services for a diverse range of retailers and retail precincts across the country. Our officers are trained in customer service, detecting risks, threats and suspicious behaviour, responding to incidents, de-escalating potential conflict situations, and in supporting clients’ facilities management requirements.

If you would like to know more about how you can make the most of your existing CCTV with effective monitoring, guarding, or security patrols, get in touch with FIRST Security.