Yard catches 500 crooks with new CCTV database

A team at Scotland Yard has built up the first CCTV database of more than 7,000 offenders who have been caught on camera in the past three years.

The unit - Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) - specialises in using the images to track down suspects for crimes including robbery, burglary and rape.

Scotland Yard launched the initiative a year ago amid concerns over the effectiveness of CCTV in tackling crime.

While the images have proved crucial in major investigations involving murder or terrorism, there were concerns over their effectiveness in solving and deterring other offences such as robbery or burglary.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, who heads the Viido unit, said police needed to establish methods of investigating CCTV images if they were to be effective.

The 500 people arrested after being identified by his unit included 116 suspected of robbery, 75 of burglary, 22 wanted for rape or sex offences and 46 wanted for assault.

Mr Neville told the Evening Standard: "These are people who would never have been arrested if it was not for this new approach to CCTV.

"We are now the only police force in the world which is using CCTV in this way to track down offenders."

The Viido team collects images from across the Met before circulating them to local police stations, police informers and the public.

If they fail to get "hits" from within the force they can be posted on the Met's website under a page entitled Caught On Camera.

So far the police have identified about a third of the 7,000 images.

Mr Neville said: "More than half of all the identifications are made by the local Safer Neighbourhood teams, including community support officers.

"Their local knowledge is invaluable in recognising people. But a significant number are also identified by members of the public.

"I want to see a situation where criminals fear being caught on CCTV.

"If they see it works and is effective then they are less likely to commit crimes."

He added: "I think that CCTV is about reassuring the public, but people who have spent money on these systems need to know that police are making the best use of the pictures to bring criminals to justice."

The unit is also developing software which will be able to follow distinctive brand logos on the clothing of unidentified suspects.

It is also looking at the possibility of creating facial recognition systems.

Police say they use a "forensic" approach to the identification of the images, in a similar way to the use of DNA or fingerprint analysis.

The move comes amid increasing arguments levelled against the police that cameras have had little effect.

While Britain has gained a reputation as being one of the heaviest users of CCTV anywhere in the world there are doubts over whether it is effective at cutting crime.

Police say too many cameras still produce poor quality images or are badly maintained or sited - though Viido officers say new cameras on buses, for instance, are producing high-quality pictures.

But one Home Office study which examined 14 CCTV systems concluded only one had been effective in cutting crime.

Graeme Gerrard, head of CCTV at the Association of Chief Police Officers, has said cameras often fail to act as a deterrent for drunken yobs in town centres.