Public safety technology, measured
License plate readers, gunshot detection, cameras and police drones as the evaluation literature actually finds them. The findings are mixed, and an agency deserves to see that before it buys.
10 works. Metadata and abstracts from OpenAlex, harvested 2026-08-26. We have not summarized, graded or characterized this research ourselves, and the abstracts below are the authors' own.
CCTV surveillance for crime prevention
Research Summary We report on the findings of an updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of the effects of closed‐circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras on crime. The findings show that CCTV is associated with a significant and modest decrease in crime. The largest and most consistent effects of CCTV were observed in car parks. The results of the analysis also demonstrated evidence of significant crime reductions within other settings, particularly residential areas. CCTV schemes incorporating active monitoring generated larger effect sizes than did passive systems. Schemes deploying multiple interventions alongside CCTV generated larger effect sizes than did schemes deploying single or no other interventions alongside CCTV. Policy Implications The results of this systematic review, based on 40 years of evaluation research, lend support for the continued use of CCTV to...
UAVs: regulations and law enforcement
Recent developments in the technology of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (drones) have opened up important new possibilities in the field of remote sensing. The development of appropriate national legislation has struggled to keep up with these developments. The state of development of this legislation in a number of countries is considered. An important distinction has to be made between the flying of UAVs as a hobby and flying them for commercial work (for present purposes commercial work is defined as commercial/industrial work, scientific research, environmental monitoring, crime detection, etc., in fact any purpose other than just for fun). Rules apply to the flying of a UAV for any purpose whatsoever, even as a hobby. It is becoming increasingly recognized that the pilot of any UAV is responsible for any accident, damage or injury caused by that UAV. More and more countries are...
A partially randomized field experiment on the effect of an acoustic gunshot detection system on police incident reports
Hot Spot Policing With Actively Monitored CCTV Cameras
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of actively monitored closed circuit television (CCTV) to assist police patrols with crime prevention in hot spot areas for assault. In other words, the study is an assessment of whether the implementation of police operator-controlled CCTV cameras led to fewer assaults in a nightlife area of the Swedish town of Malmö. In order to evaluate the effect, the treatment area has been mapped using geographical information systems based on the space covered by operational CCTV. The research design is based on standard before-after comparison with controls used in environmental criminology. One comparison is temporal, based on days of the week, and the other is geographical, based on a density comparison of bars. Results show nonsignificant changes in the rate of assaults before and after the CCTVs, suggesting that its implementation has not had...
The internationalisation of cctv surveillance: Effects on crime and implications for emerging technologies
In the last two decades, closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras have come to occupy a central role in contemporary crime prevention across the world. Widely viewed as the “internationalization” of CCTV surveillance, there has been a corresponding growth in the evidence base about its effect on crime. The cumulative evidence demonstrates that CCTV surveillance is associated with significant yet modest reductions in crime and the effects vary across a range of contextual factors, including country of origin. This paper reports on the global expansion of CCTV schemes and examines - using systematic review methods with meta-analytic techniques - effects of CCTV schemes on crime in different countries. It draws upon a recently updated database of CCTV evaluations (N = 162) covering nearly five decades of research and spanning the globe, which now includes many industrialised...
Vehicle Number Plate Detection and Recognition Techniques: A Review
Transport System (ITS) as every vehicle has a number plate as part of its identity. The quantity of vehicles on road is growing in the modern age, so numerous crimes are also increasing day by day. Almost every day the news of missing vehicles and accidents are perceived. Vehicles tracking is often required to investigate all these illegal activities. So, vehicle number plate identification, as well as recognition, is an active field of study. However, vehicle number plate identification has always been a challenging task for some reasons, for example, brightness changes, vehicle shadows, and non-uniform license plate character type, various styles, and environment color effects. In this review work, various state-of-the-art vehicle number plate detection, as well as recognition strategies, have been outlined on how researchers have experimented with these techniques, which methods have...
Can place‐based crime prevention impacts be sustained over long durations? 11‐Year follow‐up of a quasi‐experimental evaluation of a CCTV project
Research summary A long‐standing critique of place‐based crime prevention interventions has been that any reductions in crime are often short‐lived. If researchers do not carry out longer‐duration follow‐ups, we cannot know for sure if the effects of these interventions will persist, decay, or even strengthen. Using a rigorous microsynthetic control design, we evaluated the long‐term impacts of a large‐scale, public‐area closed‐circuit television (CCTV) surveillance project in Newark, New Jersey. Results show that the CCTV project was associated with a statistically significant reduction of auto theft in the intermediate term (3-4 years). The reduction of auto theft approached statistical significance ( p = 0.08) during the short term (1-2 years). The analysis also observed potential displacement effects, with displacement of robbery ( p = 0.09) in the short term (1-2 years) and theft...
Lessons Learned Implementing Gunshot Detection Technology: Results of a Process Evaluation in Three Major Cities
This article describes the experiences and lessons learned from the implementation of gunshot detection technology (GDT) in three US cities. Data were derived from stakeholder interviews, community focus groups, and review of firearm-related criminal case files. Findings indicate that stakeholders view GDT to generate valuable investigative information, that officers are compliant with GDT response and protocols, and that residents accept GDT despite low levels of trust and confidence in the police. This article concludes with recommendations for future GDT implementations.
Cost-Effectiveness of CCTV Surveillance Systems: Evidence from a Polish City
Closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance has been increasingly popular worldwide as a crime prevention measure, while its effectiveness, efficiency, and related privacy issues are debated. In this paper, we investigated whether the municipal CCTV surveillance system is cost-effective in the case study of Poznan, Poland. The analysis comprised (a) the preventive effectiveness of CCTV, (b) costs of CCTV surveillance system installation and operation, and (c) costs of crime. We collected police data on three categories of street crimes: (a) car burglary/theft, (b) car damage, and (c) robbery, as well as data on the costs of CCTV surveillance system construction and maintenance. We searched for a year after installing the CCTV system when the accumulated, hypothetical financial cost of crime was higher than the actual accumulated cost of crime and CCTV installation and maintenance in...
The Life of a Gunshot: Space, Sound and The Political Contours of Acoustic Gunshot Detection
This article examines the implications of acoustic gunshot detection systems for the role of sound and nonhuman agencies in Surveillance Studies and their relationship to broader modes of power. This is done by examining the role of a ShotSpotter Flex Incident Report in the case of DeOnté Rawlings, a 14-year old black child shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in Washington, D.C. Through this case, this article traces the diagrams of power that imbricate this surveillance system within structural racism. In focusing on the material particularities of acoustical surveillance systems, like ShotSpotter Flex, this work also reconsiders the role of the visual in surveillance systems and Surveillance Studies. This article argues that these new configurations of sound and nonhuman agency offer a particular value to understanding the contemporary entanglement of surveillant mediums and...
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