Anecdotes and Data
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a representative of William Kelly, who is the host of a Chicago TV show, Sportsaholic. Bill was mugged and beaten to the ground in front of his Gold Coast/Streeterville residence. He noticed some blue light cameras and was hoping they could help identify his attackers. After almost two weeks, Bill was finally able to review the tape. The camera was too far away and not at the correct angle to capture his attackers. This led Bill Kelly to characterize the camera system as wasteful. After all, from what he saw, the camera system was was not terribly useful.
As a scholar on cameras, I try to take a big picture view. This leads me to wonder how many others have had similar or disimilar experiences as Bill. How many crimes are solved by cameras? We don’t have this kind of data, because most police departments don’t collect it. Jeff Roush over at Fighting Crime From Above argues that we need more data on cameras. This leads him to recommend more data in the following four areas:
- Real time apprehensions
- Apprehensions based upon video or images
- Prosecutions based on camera evidence
- Effectiveness of camera operators
I agree with Jeff and I would urge everyone to try to push for the collection of this data. It is the only way we can move from anecdotes to a more through scientific understanding of how cameras affect crime.
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