15 Years of Expansion and Implausible Results. Effectivenes, Efficiency and Sustainability of CCTV System in Poznań, Poland.

Civil security technologies and their implementation are characterized by high complexity and multi-stakeholder involvement (Bierwisch 2015). Even though most studies note that development of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras is mostly supported by urban inhabitants (Honess and Charman 1992, Ditton 2000) evidence of its crime prevention capabilities are neither significant nor conclusive (Welsh and Farrington 2002, Piza 2014). More, academics and beneficiaries argue that both CCTV evaluation authors and sources used exhibits high uncertainty (BBCLA 1999, Armitage 2002). Vast majority of CCTV evaluations focus on one year prior and one year after camera’s installation period (Darcan 2012, Gill and Spriggs 2005). Thus, legal, equity and privacy ambiguities are raised (Hempel and Topfer 2004, Dienel 2004).

On the one hand, Western European research acknowledges the omnipresence of CCTV in public spaces. A desire for a more comprehensive or codified decree is stressed (Morgan 2013). On the other hand, Eastern Europe countries are lacking such studies. This is particularly the case with Poland where proliferation of CCTV systems started at the beginning of the 2000s. Despite that, research on the influence of CCTV systems on urban environment features and crime reduction is yet to be developed (Waszkiewicz 2010, Lewandowski 2015).

Taking these into account, main aim of this paper is to address the evaluation question whether CCTV implemented in Poznań (ca. 500,000 inhabitants) with one the most developed CCTV systems in Poland is: a) effective; b) efficient and; c) sustainable. Study on the impact of CCTV on crime deterrence consists of five categories of crime: vehicle theft, theft from vehicle, vehicle burglary, aggravated assault and robbery. Results of the analysis covers 10 years (2005-2014) of crime recorded. Through a selection of three comparable pairs of areas (i.e. experimental and control) the processes of proliferation and legitimisation of this socio-technical devise will be deconstructed.