The systems can often work in pitch blackness, bringing images up to daylight level. Glowing reports of the effectiveness of CCTV are announced regularly. Not only are people delighted because they are no longer afraid to go out shopping, say local police, but even criminals welcome the chance to prove their innocence by calling on evidence from the cameras. In King's Lynn, burglary and vandalism in the industrial estate has dropped to a tiny fraction of its original level. Crime in car parks has dropped by ninety per cent.
People say they feel safer.
Indeed they should. Assaults and other violent crimes appear also to have been decimated in the center of town. The government believes this is because CCTV deters 'opportunistic' crime, where people take advantage of a situation on the spur of the moment. Phillip Edwards from the Home Office Crime Prevention Unit says the government is using CCTV as part of a long term plan to reduce overall crime. Today's opportunist is tomorrow's professional criminal.