The impact of police-monitored CCTV cameras on crime patterns: a quasi-experimental study in the metropolitan city of Bursa, Turkey

Rapid adoption and expansion of the CCTV systems in Turkey as well as all over the world have produced a fair amount of "technological determinism" among many law enforcement officials, which Norris and Armstrong (1999, p. 9) define as "an unquestioning belief in the power of technology". As a matter of technological determinism, politicians and the public continue to myopically expect that the exclusive responsibility of preventing crime rest on the police-monitored CCTV cameras. Conversely, policy makers may be better informed if they consider why the law enforcement agencies should invest in the installation of the CCTV cameras in public areas based on the research. In fact, a well-designed evidence based paradigm in the CCTV literature is likely to reveal the truth about the question of "does it work?" In addition to all previous methodological efforts, empirical evaluations in the CCTV literature are still needed to account for alternative perspectives to measure their effectiveness in the deterrence of crimes. Therefore, the present study focused on the concepts of environmental criminology, namely "crime risk at place". This research also considered the environmental risk values that might identify "environmental conditions under which cameras would be most effective" (Caplan et al., 2011, p.271). Thus, the concept of "Environmental risk value" provided a unique methodological approach to the police-monitored CCTV literature. This study examined the impact of the metropolitan city of Bursa‘s city-wide system and certain individual police-monitored CCTV camera‘s views used to scan the landscape, respectively on street level, including aggravated assault, auto theft, thefts from autos, and larceny theft crime incident numbers in a spatial distribution of locations; and analyzed whether the environmental risk value effects on the deterrent effect of police-monitored CCTV cameras on aforementioned crime types. To accomplish that statistical analyses (paired t test, location quotient, and regression models) and risk terrain modeling (RTM) were conducted in this dissertation. Three important findings were found in this study. Firstly, city-wide system effect indicated that larceny thefts and thefts from auto experienced significant reduction. However, aggravated assaults and auto thefts were not. Secondly, the results from assessing the deterrent effect of certain individual police-monitored CCTV cameras on aggravated assaults, larceny thefts, thefts from autos and auto thefts were mixed. Finally, each individual CCTV camera has a unique environment – environmental risk value that influences its deterrent effect on – aggravated assaults, larceny thefts, thefts from autos and autos theft. Further, the affect was discernable and in positive direction for each crime type. Environmental risk value assessments can advance our understanding of the deterrent effect of CCTV cameras at their viewshed areas. So environmental risk sites must be taken into account when the decision process concerning CCTV cameras is made by local and national level policy makers, police agencies and politicians who try to establish where the most appropriate location to install police-monitored CCTV cameras is. In this respect RTM can be considered as a pre intervention tool so that police agencies can measure the deterrent effect of CCTV before installation. Such a pre-evaluation process increases the capacity for effective police management and crime prevention strategies in police agencies.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Emirhan Darca