However, a survey carried out in 1996 showed that social acceptability varied according to the type of application. The cameras involved are more and more powerful. Others are fitted with zoom lenses that can read the figures on cash registers or car number plates at a distance of 300 metres. The transmission of images over public telephone networks means that people can be kept under surveillance worldwide without regard to national frontiers. Because of its intended purpose, video surveillance enjoys a high degree of legitimacy.
Security is a basic human right.
And the number of assaults on persons and property has been rising across Europe, although murder itself is still relatively rare. France had 23 times as many violent thefts in 1991 as in 1963, and eight times as many burglaries. In 1950 the police solved half the cases of theft. Hence the emergence in the 1970s of a demand for neighbourhood security which traditional policing methods seemed unable to satisfy. The answer was sought elsewhere, in recourse to private or municipal security services and technologies like video surveillance.