Letter to the Editor - Crime cameras useless, anyway

June 30, 2008 by Mark Schlosberg, San Francisco Examiner

Your article and front page headline on budget cuts to San Francisco’s surveillance camera program suggest that the program has somehow been successful (“Crime cameras out of the picture?” June 27). This is not the case.

The program was conceived of three years ago as a response to the growing homicide rate. However, a study by researchers at UC Berkeley, recently demonstrated that the cameras did not reduce violent crime or homicides in San Francisco. This finding mirrors another recent study by researchers at the University of Southern California that showed Los Angeles’ cameras to be equally ineffective.

The Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee should be applauded for cutting this invasive and wasteful program and instead putting limited public safety dollars toward more productive measures.

Mark Schlosberg
Police Practices Policy Director
ACLU of Northern California