After the cameras had been in place for a year, the time came to assess whether they were working, as was required by the CSC ordinance. To fulfill that obligation, the SFPD commissioned a six-month study from a team of researchers at UC Berkeley’s Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).
The CITRIS researchers began poring over police and city documents, conducting interviews with residents, performing site visits at comparable cities, and analyzing more than three years’ worth of San Francisco crime data. They were aided in their research by City Administrator Ed Lee, who helped connect them with the various relevant city agencies.
The initial results of the study began to leak out in March of 2008, though the final report wouldn’t be issued until eight months later. Still, the preliminary report painted a very mixed picture of the cameras’ success.
“We find no evidence of an impact of the Community Safety Cameras on violent crime,” the final report concluded. “Analysis of specific violent crime rates reveals a decline in overall homicides in areas near the cameras but an increase in areas far from the cameras, suggestive of a displacement effect.”
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