Exploring the Role of CCTV Surveillance Systems in Town Centre

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Exploring the Role of CCTV SurveillanceSystems in Town C entre M anag em entby Peter Jones, David Hillier and David Turner

Biographical N otesPeter Jones is Dean of theBusiness School at theUniversi ty of Plymouth,U K . David Hillier is Headof Geography at theUniversi ty of Glamorgan,Wales, UK. David Turneris Head of Research withthe Hampshi reConstabulary, Winchester,U K . Introduction

Within the UK the past three decades have witnessed dramatic and continuingchanges in the geography of retail provision. During this period the traditionalsupremacy of town and city centres at the top of the retail hierarchy has beenincreasingly successfully challenged by the development and diversification ofout-of-town and edge of town shopping facilities. This 'out of town exodus'(Schiller, 1987[1]) can be traced from the food superstores opened by groceryretailers from the late 196 0's onwards through the developm ent of retail warehouses,retail parks and regional shopping centres (Guy, 1994[2]) to a more recent 'fourthwave' (Fernie, 1995[3]) which include warehouse clubs, factory outlet centres andairport retailing. The cumulative effects of these developments are seen to pose amajor challenge to retail businesses in town and city centres and perhaps morefundamentally to the centres themselves. The traditional spirit of the UK 's town andcountry planning policies, first established some fifty years ago, was to positivelysupport retail activity in town and city centres and to restrict out of town retaildevelopment (Guy, 1994[4]). However, from the early 1980's onwards, suchpolicies had only a limited effect in stemm ing the tide of retail decentralisation andthey often seemed to be honoured more in the breach than in the observance.By the mid 1990's, however, central government began to adopt a much morerestrictive approach to out of town development and the current planning policyguidelines (Department of the Environment, 1996[5]) stress that permission forretail development on out of town locations should only be given if suitable towncentre and edge of town centre sites are unavailable and only then if such locationsare accessible by a choice of means of transport. At the same time these policyguidelines included a clear commitment to promoting town centre management.Underlying this commitment is the belief that the effective management andpromo tion of town and city centres will help to enhance their vitality and viability.Town centre management can be defined as a 'carefully planned and co-ordinatedprogramme of policies, actions, and activities undertaken to maintain and enhancecentral shopping environments'. (Jones, 1992[6]). The first town centre management schemes were established in the late 1980's and by the mid 1990's suchschemes were common throughout much of the UK. A range of initiatives have beenpursued under the town centre management umbrella which include small scalelandscape developments and environmental im provem ents; the provision of leisure,recreation and entertainment activities; the co-ordination of local authority andbusiness sector management policies and operational programmes; promotion andmarketing strategies; and crime prevention and security measures. During the1990's, closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance systems have become anincreasingly popular m eans of tackling the last of these initiatives. At the same time,the introduction of such schemes seem to pose a range of often complex managementand research issues. This article provides a short outline of CCT V developm ents intown and city centres within the UK and seeks to explore som e of these issues. Thearticle draws on information provided by a numb er of police forces, local authorities

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and security companies, and by the Home Office, Liberty and the British Retail'Consortium.Closed Circuit Television Surveillance SystemsIn its simplest form a CCTV surveillance system consists of a camera, a televisionmonitor and recording equipment. The cam era is usually located in a high visibilitylocation to provide cov erage of the area involved and the video pictures it generatesof sites and activities are transmitted via a fibre optic cable to a monitoring room.The transmitted video pictures are monitored by an observer and recorded and stillpictures can be downloaded from the video. More comm only, a system will employmultiple cameras and split screen monitors, more sophisticated cameras can offerpan, tilt and zoom functions and infra red spot lighting can be added for night timevision and surveillance.

Typical general aims in introducing a town centre CCTV system are 't o prov idea safer town cen tre for the benefit of those wh o visit, live, work o r trade there, andto allow the full enjoyment of its facilities and environment,' 'to assist in therevitalising the centre' and 'to enhance the economic position of the centre byencouraging m ore businesses into the town w here people can shop in the knowledgethat they are in a safe environment.' More specifically, CCTV systems are usuallyintroduced in the belief that they will achieve one or more o f the following objectivesviz to deter criminals and disruptive groups from intimidating the pub lic; to reduceorganised crime especially where gangs of shoplifters, pickpockets and drug dealerscarry out such activities in town centres; to detect antisocial and public orderoffences; to help convict offenders through the provision of high resolution im ages;to increase the general public's sense of safety; and to provide a greater sense ofcommercial security for the retail and business community.The first town centre CC TV system w as introduced in Kings Lynn in 1987 andsimilar systems were deployed in a small number of town centres in the mid 198 0'sbut their popularity grew m ore rapidly during the early 199 0's. By late 1996 CCTVsystems w ere operational in some 140 town and city centres throughout the UK andover 100 new schemes were in the planning pipeline. A number of large citiesincluding Glasgow, Manchester, Hull, Liverpool and Bradford, as well as manymajor centres within Greater London have CCTV systems and they have also beenintroduced at most levels of the urban hierarchy and in contrasting geographicallocations, for example in Chester, Plymouth, Ilkeston, Bodmin, Harlow, Newport,Colwyn Bay and Dunfermline. In Newport, Gwent, a twenty-four camera systemwas installed in the town centre in 1994. The images are monitored in a securelocation off town centre by 'town centre rangers' who also patrol the centre. Thereis twenty four hour coverage with one operator during the daytime and two at night

viewing for one to two hour sessions in between patrolling. The system is jointlyfunded by the Welsh Office, the local authority and the town trad ers. In Plymouththe CCTV system includes twenty six cameras in the pedestrianised town centreand the video pictures are monitored on local authority's premises by a privatesecurity firm.The capital costs of CCTV systems vary with the scale of the venture and thesophistication of the technical equipm ent, but typical figures for a large city cen trelike Nottingham are 630,000 ranging down to some 20,000 for a relatively smallscheme in Buckingham. Annual operating costs and capital equipment replacement

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costs can range from 100,000 upw ards. The majority of scheme s are jointly fundedby central and/or local government and the local retail and business com mun ity. Inthe 1996/97 Home Office CCTV 'Challenge Competition', for example, some 240schem es were successful in bidding for Government funding of almost 16 m illionto support total capital costs of 37 million. Just over 100 of the successful bidswere for town/city centres and these included schemes with a capital cost of over500,000 in Crawley, Milton Keynes, W oking and W alsall as well as much smallerventures costing under 100,000 in St Albans, Penarth and Chesterfield.Management and Research PerspectivesThe introduction o f CCTV systems has received strong positive support from manyof the stakeholders in town and city centres including central government, localauthorities, retailers, the police and the m ajority of the general public. In his forwardto the 1994 Home Office Guide [7] to CCTV the Home Secretary, for example,stressed that CCTV 'surveillance cameras are becoming a regular feature in anincreasing number of towns and cities in response to public demand' and that they'can not only help prevent and detect crime' but 'can also deter criminals andreassure the pub lic'. In a similar vein at the local authority level, Ipswich B oroughCouncil, in a promotional brochure, argue that 'crime and the fear of crime is oneof the biggest issues we face today and our CCTV cameras play an important rolehere - acting as a visible deterrent to law breakers'. Police authorities have alsoprovided powerful support for the introduction of CCTV although they wouldtypically stress that such surveillance systems should not be seen as the sole answ erto the problems of crime, disorder and p ublic nuisance in town centres. In their viewCCTV should be viewed as part of an interrelated and wider package of measuresinvolving all town centre stakeholders working together in partnership. At the sametime, police authorities can see CCTV as not only placing yet another demand onalready overstretched reso urces, but also one that will be difficult to man age. Theimmediacy of the images generated can be perceived as creating a 'we need youhere now' syndrome while the general public may come to expect the police to'solve' crime and crime related problems with the aid of this new technology.

Wh ile the introduction o f surveillance cam eras are widely seen as an importantweapon in deterring and detecting crime, and in reducing the fear of crime, withintown and city centres, the employment, management and evaluation of CC TV raisesa range of issues and agendas for those involved in, and responsible for, themanagem ent of town centres. There are initial planning and feasibility issues. Somepolice forces, for example, privately suggest that in some cases a number of localauthorities have been drawn into introducing CCTV schemes with little researchbeing carried out locally. Thus they have a perception that pressure and plans forCCT V are triggered by the introduction of a system in a neighbou ring town or city.A detailed reported crime audit is seen to be important here and this informationcan also help to inform debates and discussions about local perceptions of crimelevels and the risk and fear of crime. Without such research some police forcesbelieve that CCTV become s little more than an expensive cu re looking for an illness.Once a decision is taken to install a CCTV system within a town or city centre, thena variety of operational issues need to be addressed. A limited numbe r of exam plescan provide some flavour of these issues. In establishing the precise operationalrequiremen ts it is vital to have a clear view of the different technical dem ands on aCCTV system. If individuals are to be identified, then the system must be capableof 'zooming in' and taking 'head and shoulders' quality images of a person. Once

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operational the effectiveness of a CCTV system will depend in part on the qualityand skills of the monitoring staff. Here training programm es focusing, for example,upon local crime patterns, gathering evidence by cam era, the importance of evidential continuity of video tapes and liaison with the police control rooms have crucialroles to play. In many cases, tapes areused over and ov er again for filming. Such apractice provides poor quality images and where these images are to be used asevidence incourt then this is a major problem. This has led the police forces to turntheir attention to ways of enhancing poo r quality video film footage. A join t p rojectinvolving Greater Manchester Police and the Forensic Science Service has beenestablished on a pilot basis to provide image enhancement and interpretationservices to police forces. The interpretation and decoding of behaviour and actionscaptured on film is a major challenge not always apparent to those looking to CCT Vto provide an objective quick technological fix to perceived crime. More generally,it is important to note that while the Local Government Information Unit haveproduced a model code of practice relating to CCTV, there are no statutoryenforceable guidelines or legislative g overning its uses in town and city centres.

Despite the rapid growth in the popularity of CCTV , surveillance systems intown and city centres, the evaluation of their impact and effectiveness have g enerallybeen limited to small scale local studies and Fyfe and Bannister (1996[8]) havecalled such evaluations into question, suggesting that such studies often exhibit anumb er of methodological and theoretical problems. Firstly, the 'bef ore ' and 'after'time sp ans are often too short and not always 'matched' for time of year. Secondly,that the data the evaluations employ relates to crime reported to, and recorded by,the police which may not accurately reflect the actual incidence of, or changes in,crime. Thirdly, the possibility that crime has been displaced to areas that are notmonitored by CCTV is said to be rarely studied or discussed, and few attempts aremade to identify control areas in an attempt to assess comparable changes in thelevel of reported crime in areas of the town/city without C CTV . Finally, on a moretheoretical level, the authors argue that CCTV surveillance is part of the discourseof new behaviourism and as such is more concerned with the prevention of crimethan its cause, and more concerned with changing behavioural consequences thanwith changing social conditions. As such, they argue CCTV systems work at thelevel of deterrence and not at the level of causation.

Nevertheless, many policy and continuing resource allocation decisions havebeen, and continue to be made, on the basis of the existing small scale evaluationstudies and reports. Individual police authorities and local councils have un dertakena number of studies and evaluations of the impact of CCTV systems. In mid 1996for examp le, Strathclyde P olice reported a 17% fall in reported street crime in thoseparts of Glasgow city centre monitored by 'The Citywatch' street camera system.The Strathclyde Police also argued that thefts of property and break-ins had beenconsiderably reduced, indicating that the non-stop CCTV surveillance of the citycentre was discouraging the professional thief. In September 1996, DerbyshireConstabulary reported significant reductions in crime and public disorder in Ilkestontown centre following the introduction of CCTV. Earlier that year official datashowing 16-19% reductions in recorded crime figures for a range of offencesincluding burglary, motor vehicle theft, assault damage and theft from shops overa com parable six months w ere cited to support the Constabulary's view that CCTVis a proven and effective weapon in the fight against town centre crime.

Darlington Borough Council has undertaken its own evaluation of the CCT V



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system which w as introduced in the town in 1994. The evaluation sought to explorethe impact of CCTV on town centre crime by conducting interviews with m embersof the public, car park users, police officers and offenders, by a questionnairecirculated to town ce ntre businesses, and by a simple comp arison o f recorded crimelevels before and after the introduction of CCTV . Interviews with a random sampleof 300 memb ers of the general public, for example, revealed that CCT V do es muchto remove the fear factor and that 90% of those interviewed claimed to be moreinclined to visit the town c entre due to the presence of this surveillance technology .In a similar way the report stressed that CCTV had had a major impact in reducingthe level of crime and the fear of crime in town centre car parks. The police claimeda marked decrease in theft and public order offences and a dramatic reduction incriminal damage within the town centre and stressed the critical role of CCTV inproviding evidence w ith w hich to secure convictions. Although only 25 % of thesixty one town centre businesses which completed the questionnaire reported thatthey had noted a decrease in crime against their business, some 4 1 % suggested thatthe introduction of CCTV would be a determining factor in the decision makingprocess for any future expansion plans.

The Home Office Police Research Group report "CCTV in Town Centres:Three C ase Studies" (Brown, 1995[9]) is probably the most authoritative evaluationstudy. The study, based on Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham and Kings Lynn,clearly suggested that CCTV was used most often to deal with conspicuous antisocial and criminal behaviour, most notably various small scale public orderproblems ranging from unruly nuisance behaviour to fighting and assaults. Inassessing the impact of CCT V, the study found that when cam eras are first installedwithin an area, they can have an immediate deterrent effect on a wide range ofcrimes. This it was argued may help to explain the reductions in crime oftenindicated by some of the short term evaluation studies. However, the report suggested that the effect of CCTV on crime m ay start to fade in the longer term . In allareas included in the study there is evidence to suggest that CCTV had reducedproperty crime, particularly burglary, but the effect of surveillance ca meras on crimeagainst the person was less clear. More general informal enquiries carried out bythe British Retail Consortium suggest that while some town centres are claiming upto 36% reductions in crime following the introduction of CCTV, it is not clearwhether such reductions are due to CCTV or to a wider range of managementinitiatives introduced at about the same time, e.g. radio links, shop watch schem es,dedicated town centre policing, all of which may have had a positive impact onpreviously neglected tow n centres, so increasing footfall and acting as a d eterrent.In addition, the, Consortium suggest that it is also important to try to evaluate theimpact of the measures taken over recent years by the large retailers within townand city centres to improve their own security in response to increasing levels oftheft and violence in the retail trade.A major po tential problem in any debate about the imp act of CCT V sy stems isthat of displacement. The Home Office (Brown, 1995[10]) argued that it was verydifficult to identify displacement accurately but suggests that there is evidence tosuggest some displacement had taken place particularly personal crime such asrobbery and thefts from the person. The study also specifically revealed that, inBirmingham, as crime had been displaced away from the city centre area coveredby CCT V so it had manifested itself in different w ays, especially theft from parkedvehicles. The local authority study in Darlington also revealed some evidence ofdisplacement crime to surrounding areas but the reduction in reported crime in the

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town centre was seen to far exceed any increases elsewhere. Further the reportconcluded that this CCTV system had proved so successful that the DarlingtonPolice Force had been ab le to allocate resources to surrounding areas to comba t anycrime displaced from the town centre. In a similarly positive vein, the StrathclydePolice have stressed that there is nothing to suggest that crime was being displacedfrom streets covered by Glasgow's 'Citywatch' CCTV system to other parts of thecity centre.

Any comprehensive evaluation of CCTV systems should not only attempt toassess displacement but also seek to examine financial costs as well as perceivedbenefits. Here there is some evidence of emerging problems. The British RetailConsortium, for example, suggest that the retail sector is becoming increasinglyreluctant to be seen as the principal funder of new CC TV scheme s in town and citycentres, or to take responsibility for the major share of the funding of existingschem es. Indeed there have been a number of worrying financial signs in areas whereCCTV is perceived by local stakeholders to be a success. In Glasgow, for exam ple,the Citywatch Association which operates the CCTV system in the city centre hada funding shortfall of 65,000 for 1996/97 and faces further funding problems in1997/98 because of the expiry of capital funding from the Glasgow DevelopmentAge ncy and the resulting cost cutting exercises seem likely to affect the quality andintegrity of the se rvice.

W hat of the general public? Conventional wisdom suggests that the dep loymen tof CCTV in public places such as town and city centres will raise a range of issuesrelating to civil liberties and personal privacy. How ever, there is little or no eviden ceof such public concern and at a time when the security industry estimates that eachmem ber of the population is viewed on average by eight different surveillancecame ras each day, the public acceptance of, and supp ort for, CCT V sy stems se emsto be widespread. In Ipswich, for example, a survey of public opinion conductedbefore the installation of the CCTV system revealed that 97% of those surveyedsupported its introduction in the town centre. Here the local authority believe thatthis public support remains constant and they note that they received no letters ofcomp laint during the first two years of the sys tem 's operation. How ever, this is notto say that civil liberty issues do not merit continuing debate and research. Suchissues include the mon itoring and public accountability of CCTV system s, the needfor regulatory and legislative operational frameworks and the fear that the passiveacceptance of surveillance technology as a method of crime control could facilitateits use as a tool for more general moral and social control. Liberty, the civil andpolitical rights pressure group for example, suggest that all pervasive surveillanceis now foreseeable and that it will give future authorities tremendo us opportun itiesto exert social control and they question whether B ritish society should co ntinue tomove in this direction without public debate and without legislation.ConclusionDuring the 1990's CCTV surveillance systems have become increasingly comm onplace in town and city centres throughout the UK. The deployment o f CC TV seemsto hav e strong, if at times qualified, supp ort from all the stakeh olders - central andlocal government, the police authorities, the retail business community and thegeneral pub lic - with an interest in town and city centres. Neverth eless, the grow inginstallation and use of CCTV systems does raise a wide range of empirical,operational and conceptual issues relating to crime audits, operational m anagem ent



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and quality control, the systematic evaluation of CCTV, crime displacement andcivil liberties. Continuing research into these issues can help to inform policydebates about the future m anagement of town and city centres.

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References1. Schiller, R. 'Out of Town Exodus' from E. McFadyen (Ed.), The Changing Faceof British Retailing, London, Newman Books, 1987.2. Guy, C , The Retail Development Process, London, Routledge, 1994.3. Fernie, J., 'T he Coming of the Fourth Wave: New Forms of Retail Out of TownDevelopment,' International Journal of Retail a nd Distribution Managem ent, Vol.23 , N o. l,pp.4-l 1,1995.4. Guy, C ., op.cit.5. Department of the Environment, 'Town Centres and Retail Development,'Planning Policy Guidance, PPG, London: HMSO , 1996.6. Jones, P., 'Town Centre Management Schemes in the UK ,' International Journalof Retail and D istribution M anagement, Vol. 18, N o. 3, p. 15, 1990.7. Hom e Office, Closed Circuit Television, London: Home Office, 1994.8. Fyfe, N.R. and Bannister, J., 'City W atching: Closed Circuit Television in PublicSpaces,' Area, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp.37-46, 1996.9. Brown, B., 'CCTV in Town Centres: Three Case Studies', Police Research GroupCrime Detection and Prevention Schemes, Paper No. 68, London: Home Office,1995.10. Ibid.


Exploring the Role of CCTV Surveillance Systems in Town Centre

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