Bruce Schneier has written an outstanding essay for CNN on why sticking CCTV cameras on every corner doesn’t make us safer, and can make us less safe by opening us up to abuse, and by causing police resources to be misallocated. This is required reading for the twenty-first century. Bruce points out that where there’s a specific threat in a specific place — casinos worried about cheats, shops worried about shoplifters, parking garages worried about skulking muggers — CCTVs have some use. But as a catch-all solution to crime, they just don’t work well enough to justify their expense in resources and liberty.
Pervasive security cameras don’t substantially reduce crime. This fact has been demonstrated repeatedly: in San Francisco, California, public housing; in a New York apartment complex; in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; in Washington; in study after study in both the U.S. and the U.K. Nor are they instrumental in solving many crimes after the fact.
FROM HERE : Spy cameras won’t make us safer