BIOS: Technology Means Business

As we enter what is arguably the busiest shopping week of the year, a new study by Telindus has drawn attention to the growing problem of street crime on Britain’s High Streets.

The study revealed that nearly half of shoppers worry about pick-pockets or being mugged, with 23% preferring to shop online to avoid the risk, suggesting that retailers and local authorities need to be more inventive when deploying surveillance tools to keep criminals on their toes.

While the recent British crime survey showed that crime rates have fallen by 10.74% in the year to June 2006, 59% of shoppers questioned in Telindus’ straw poll survey across the South East revealed that CCTV failed to alleviate fears of street crime, suggesting that cameras ‘made no difference’.

Reasons cited for the technology’s ineffectiveness include the belief that criminals are fully aware where cameras are (34%) and any images that are caught on camera are of extremely poor quality, therefore useless in a court of law (31%). For nearly a quarter of respondents, the fear of being pick-pocketed actually provoked them to shop online rather than venture into busy shopping areas, which must ring alarm bells for High Street retailers who are already baulking under the competition posed by online stores.

“The concerns identified in this study highlight the fact that many businesses are still relying on fixed CCTV technology,” said Mark Hutchinson, UK managing director at Telindus. “With innovative technologies such as IP CCTV, poor quality images and fixed camera locations are no longer an issue. IP CCTV cameras can be connected wirelessly to a business network and easily re-located in a matter of hours to keep criminals guessing. As images are stored in digital format, footage is of higher quality and can be stored more cost effectively on any standard IP storage device rather than on legacy stand-alone systems. It is time businesses started to move forward with their surveillance technology as it is clearly a cause of concern for consumers.”

IP CCTV systems are currently used in Westminster, enabling video to be digitally encoded and transmitted across the wireless network to a wide range of destinations. Images can also be instantly transmitted to street based employees with PDAs and allow instant sharing of information with front-line staff. Because video is carried over standard IP networks it is also easier to share information with third parties such as police, retailers and private security staff. The benefits of the cameras’ flexibility have been instantly evident.

The study also indicated that the public has now accepted CCTV technology as a part of everyday life. Despite that fact that the UK has one camera for every 12 people, only 20% of respondents felt that the UK had too many CCTV cameras, with just a quarter seeing camera surveillance as an invasion of privacy. This acceptance is highlighted by the amount of times respondents thought they were caught on film - almost half (48%) thought they were filmed a maximum of 50 times a day, whereas the average Londoner is filmed on average 300 times a day.

“For retailers and local authorities, the message is clear - don’t be complacent. Although CCTV is now part of our culture, keep thinking and make sure your surveillance strategies are inventive,” added Hutchinson.

The Telindus survey, carried out during the week of 11 December, comprised of 258 shoppers from the South East region. The company sought to explore public attitudes toward CCTV and whether the technology made them feel safer in their communities, in particular when shopping in the run up to Christmas.

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