SURVEILLANCE--JUST THE FACTS:

The following interesting statistics were recently published on the webpage of the Calgary Anarchist Black Cross. Seems that video surveillance cameras may not make you as "safe" as you think....

*number of surveillance cameras the city of Calgary plans to install as a pilot project to help "reduce crime"
24
*estimated cost of this pilot project to Calgary taxpayers, in dollars
500,000
*rank of Britain amongst the 'most surveilled nations in the world' according to privacy international
1
*number of times the average Londoner is photographed by a closed circuit tv (cctv) surveillance camera in one day
300
*number of Britons for every cctv camera in that country
14
*year in which the British home office commissioned the "gill report" to study the effectiveness of cctv's in reducing crime
2007
*number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a decrease in crime
6
*number of those decreases in crime that was deemed to be statistically significant and attributable to cctvs
1
*number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a increase in crime
7
*number of police surveillance cameras installed by San Francisco in 2006 to help "reduce the murder rate" in that city
68
*cost to taxpayers of the San Francisco surveillance camera program, in us dollars
900,000
*number of convictions secured by surveillance camera footage in San Francisco since 2006
1
*number of those convictions that was for a homicide
0
*year with the highest homicide rate in San Francisco's history
2007
*maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of cctvs in Britain, according to a 2005 Narco study, in percent
5
maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of better street lighting, according to the same Narco study

20