The increase in CCTV use has cost the local governments millions of pounds as well as about [...]]]> Last night it was reported that the number of  controlled by town halls has tripled over the last decade. Currently there are 60,000 cameras focused on the streets, which compares to roughly one camera per every 1000 UK citizens.

The increase in CCTV use has cost the local governments millions of pounds as well as about £170m in grants from the Home office.  The spending however has raised controversy, given many people question if the cameras are actually effective at catching criminals in action.

The downfall of the camera images is that many are low quality and cannot be used to identify criminals.  Police in the past have admitted that only about one crime out of 1000 is solved with camera footage.

Director, Alex Deane, of the Big Brother Watch campaign which used Freedom of Information requests to discover the current CCTV use, stated that often cameras are seen as a cheaper form of policing, but are not able to help solve crimes.

Deane continued to say that often times the footage is so poor that it is not permissible in courts and at times the cameras are even left unmanned or turned off making them useless.

The study found that there are 59,753 cameras controlled by 418 local authorities across the UK.  Ten years ago when the same type of study was completed only 21,000 cameras were found.

The campaign group stated that camera use is only for making people appear to feel safe and that as CCTV use continues to grow so do privacy issues. This raises the question what is the point of the CCTV. If the images are useless for identifying people, or not good enough for evidence in court why are there so many cameras in action?