HMN 2025: How New study of impact of CCTV cameras on crime in Newark, NJ, highlights worth of longer-term evaluations

Place-based crime-prevention interventions have been critiqued for the quick period of reductions in crime they produce. In a brand new study, researchers evaluated the long-term impacts of a giant public closed-circuit tv (CCTV) surveillance challenge in Newark, NJ. The study discovered that the challenge was related to lowered auto thefts three to 4 years after cameras have been put in, results which may not have been discovered if the analysis ended after only one or two years.

The study, by researchers at Northeastern University’s Crime Prevention Lab and AH Datalytics, appears in Criminology & Public Policy.

“If researchers do not perform research of longer durations, we can not know for certain if the results of interventions persist, decay, and even strengthen,” explains Eric Piza, Lipman Family professor of criminology and legal justice at Northeastern University, who led the research.

The use of CCTV cameras has risen considerably within the United States and different western international locations over the past 20 years. Most research evaluating the impacts of such surveillance on crime have been quick in period, with the typical lasting solely 17 months, which can be insufficient for understanding the longer-term results of such initiatives.

In this study, researchers examined the short-term (1–2 years), intermediate-term (3–4 years), and long-term (9–11 years) impacts on violent and severe property crimes of a giant CCTV surveillance challenge carried out in a number of public locations in Newark, NJ. The Newark Police Department put in a public video surveillance system in 2008 and had practically 150 particular person surveillance cameras arrange by 2010.

The challenge was related to a statistically vital discount of auto theft within the intermediate time period. The CCTV challenge’s impact on auto theft grew from approaching significance to statistically vital between the quick and intermediate time period. These so-called sleeper results recommend that an prolonged interval was crucial for the challenge to be related to auto theft deterrence. The study additionally recognized potential displacement results, with displacement of theft within the quick time period and theft from automobiles in the long run approaching statistical significance.

“Studies that last more could reveal fascinating results that emerge after a program has been working for some time and even modifications within the course of the results,” notes Brandon Welsh, the Dean’s professor of criminology and legal justice at Northeastern University, who coauthored the research.

“Based on our findings, policymakers want to know that analysis that assesses short-term impacts could fail to detect nuanced results which are related for decision-making.”