SECURITY CAMERAS ON CITY STREETS DETER CRIMINALS NOT DRUNKS, U.K. EXPERT SAYS

VANCOUVER - Closed-circuit security cameras don't do much to deter
drunks from rowdy behaviour, according to a British expert on the
systems visiting Vancouver this week.

On Tuesday, the Vancouver police department said it wants to install
high-tech security cameras on the Granville Mall to discourage
drunken fights in the city's "entertainment district."

But Supt. Rick Naylor, president of the Police Superintendents'
Association of England and Wales, said Britain's CCTV cameras have
done little to deter that nation's drunken louts.

Naylor said Britain's roughly 200,000 public CCTV cameras are
effective in deterring certain types of crime -- such as
sophisticated theft rings.

"They deter professional criminals who are very surveillance
conscious," he said.

"It doesn't stop rowdy behaviour," he said. "You probably won't ever
dissuade people from that kind of behaviour if they've been drinking
heavily all night."

Naylor said the cameras also do little to deter another type of
criminal common to Vancouver: desperate drug addicts.

"You will never stop the chaotic drug user who needs to steal
something to get his next fix," he said.

What the cameras are useful for, said Naylor, is helping police
respond quickly to crimes as they occur -- and to help track down
offenders after the fact.

"It's a superb investigative tool," he said. "The pictures are great
in court and it's led to a lot more guilty pleas because defence
attorneys do not want those pictures shown in court -- because if
they are, the sentence is increased."

People in Canada are used to seeing grainy images from
convenience-store security cameras.

But Naylor said public cameras, like those in use in Britain, are of
very high quality -- allowing police to zoom in on suspects' faces
and get an image good enough to identify them.

In Britain, the cameras are operated by local governments, who notify
the police if they see a crime in progress.

On Thursday, B.C. Solicitor-General John Les announced the expansion
of a program that uses a new police car-mounted device that
automatically scans licence plates.

The devices are already widely used in Britain. "We've had some
really notable successes," said Naylor.