NCJ Number
238578
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety Volume: 14 Issue: 2 Dated: Aptil 2012 Pages: 104-121
Date Published
April 2012
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Australian and United Kingdom evaluations of open-space, closed circuit television (CCTV) systems in urban areas were reviewed in an attempt to identify elements of good practice and assess the Cairns Regional Council's (CRC) CCTV system against them.
Abstract
Recommended management and operational practices were extracted from peer reviewed public health and criminological literature and government reports. These were grouped by key topics and tabulated. CRC's CCTV manuals were examined. Observational sessions, open-ended discussions and focus groups with operators and stakeholders were used to identify operational and management practices. These were then compared with those found in the literature and the results fed back to Council. The authors found the Cairns CCTV model generally met recommended guidelines but improvements are possible. This article also situates this study within debate surrounding the adequacy of CCTV evaluation. The author's evaluation used a public health 'continuous quality improvement' approach incorporating elements of a criminological 'realist evaluation' methodology. This identified 10 contexts within which to postulate and test, with further research, the mechanisms through which the Cairns CCTV system operates. Implications for improving our understanding of the effectiveness of CCTV are discussed. (Published Abstract)