The city of Cap-Acadie gives a financial boost to residents who want to install a camera on their property. The impact on crime is however uncertain.
Buy a surveillance camera, install it on your field, then take a photo that you will send to the town hall with the bill … If you live in Cap-Acadie, that’s all you will need to receive the sum of $ 100.
The city in the south-east of new Brunswick thus hopes to bring more security in its streets, in addition to helping the police to apprehend the authors of crimes. Indeed, the persons interested in the reimbursement undertake to provide the recordings of their camera to the RCMP if it requests it.
According to CAP-ACADIE Public Security Director Nicole Melanson, this program launched in early April is already a success, since around fifteen people had already claimed their brown ticket on Monday.
“There are others that come in every day,” she says.
A budget of $ 5,000 has been planned, which should therefore reward 50 buyers on the basis of the “first arrival, first served”. The cameras must have been purchased between April 1 and June 30.
Professor of criminology at St. Thomas University, Jean Sauvageau agrees with the idea that such a program will allow the police to save time during their investigations.
“They will know where to go to see the images captured, and will spend less time at the doors to ask people if they have seen or heard something,” he explains.
On the other hand, he wonders if the other objective announced, namely dissuading criminal activities, will be achieved.
“I cannot recommend that a city do not do it, but you should not expect that there are miracles!”
The effectiveness of video surveillance to prevent crimes is indeed subject to debate. A meta-analysis published in 2019, which combines the results of studies carried out over 40 years, concluded that crimes was reduced by 12% in residential neighborhoods monitored by cameras.
-However, there are few studies on the effectiveness of video surveillance, notes Jean Sauvageau.
“This can occasionally help in a specific location, on a specific cause,” thinks the professor.
An important nuance is also to be considered: video surveillance tends to move delinquency to neighboring areas.
«Improvisation»
Nicole Melanson talks about “all the fires that have taken place in recent years” (in particular touching boucanières) and “auto flights” as justification to launch the reimbursement program.
But according to her, the city did not rely on any study which would prove that the installation of new cameras would reduce these misdeeds.
“We saw that St. Andrews had launched the program before. We thought it was a great idea for our community. ”
“It is a little improvisation,” comments Jean Sauvageau, who would have liked the city to bring a little more arguments and figures before setting up this program, which seems above all to aim for the reduction of a feeling of insecurity.
He therefore hopes that a “tight follow -up” will be done in the coming months “to measure if there is a concrete positive effect on crime.”
Finally, the arrival of surveillance cameras, wherever, raises the question of respect for privacy. The owners who sign the CAP-ACADIE discount request form undertake to “respect the laws on the protection of privacy”, without being defined.
Nicole Melanson thinks, however, that the risks of slippage (like neighbors who spy) are limited, the resolution of cameras being limited. In addition, “cell phones can go to more places,” she adds.
