Lord Falconer, the home office minister responsible for criminal justice, faced embarrassment this morning as he opened a CCTV system in Manchester - on the day a report revealed that filming criminals was less effective than improved street lighting.
Rachel Armitage, of Nacro's crime and social policy unit, said: "It would be foolish to claim that well-planned CCTV can never have an impact, but the effectiveness of CCTV is often overstated.
"This places a big responsibility on councils and others to think through the implementation of CCTV and ensure that is not favoured in place of cheaper and more effective measures such as adequate street lighting.