so one of the first things you have to get used to about living in london: you’re on candid camera. all the time.

seriously, everywhere you go, there are signs proc;aiming “cctv in operation”. on the tube. in the cornershop. in bars and restaurants. on public streets. from the time you venture out your front door in the morning, you are almost continually being watched, in the name of fighting crime. one camera for every 14 britons.

which is a little bizarre, since london doesn’t generally have very much crime to begin with, especially when you compare it to most major metropolitan u.s. cities. i’ve travelled all sorts of places at all hours of the day (generally whilst inebriated), and never once felt unsafe. sure, they have petty crimes like thefts and vandalism, and even some not-so-petty crime like assault or rape. but for the most part, you are statistically pretty damn safe.

it’d be pretty easy to attribute it to all the surveillance, right? people don’t commit as many crimes because there’s a greater likelihood of being caught on tape. and after a while, you kind of do away with the notion of personal privacy anywhere outside your home, and all the little cameras start to fade into the background noise. most people are willing to give up personal freedoms for a measure of security. and you come to understand that you are *not* presumed innocent just walking down the street minding your own business, you are constantly a potential criminal.

the problem with that theory, is that it doesn’t hold water. in my experience, londoners *don’t* feel safer than say, new yorkers. perhaps even less so. i never had as many people warn me to be careful in my seven years in new york, as i have in the less-than one year i’ve been here. in spite of all evidence to the contrary, londoners seem to feel very much threatened.

and the problem is, the cameras don’t deter crime. a recent study shows that “security cameras were effective in tackling vehicle crime but had limited effect on other crimes. Improved streetlighting recorded better results.”

so next time you see a cctv sign, smile and say “cheese” – you may not be any safer, but you are a lot more photogenic…

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