Independent researchers at the University of California Berkeley conducted an outside evaluation of the City's ill-advised video surveillance program and issued today's report.

In line with similar studies from around the world, the report finds that San Francisco's video surveillance cameras do not make people safer. The cameras fail to prevent or reduce violent crime, including homicide. The cameras also have no effect on drug offenses or prostitution. 

"Precious public safety dollars need to be spent on solutions that actually work to reduce violent crime, like community policing, intervention programs and improved lighting, not on more ineffective and intrusive cameras," said Nicole Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director at the ACLU of Northern California. "With homicides at a ten-year high and budgets in free fall, San Francisco cannot afford to spend its scarce public safety resources on camera systems that fail to make us safer."

The cameras were first installed in 2005 to address violent crime. Though the report found that the cameras resulted in a reduction in property crime, critics cite a failure to fulfill their purpose and question whether less property crime justifies the privacy intrusions and the financial toll.

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