On the 31st May 2016, Radio 5 Live announced that Westminster City Council are looking at switching off CCTV cameras to save money.

Currently, £1m a year is spent maintaining the 75 cameras located across the west end, Parliament and other famous London landmarks.

The council wish to rid the city of all 75 cameras after the 1st September 2016...

What are the reasons behind the cuts?

The UK has between 4 and 6 million cameras in total according to British security industry associates. However, authority figures such as the police use only a fraction of the cameras available in the city as many private cameras are owned by businesses and train stations etc.

Westminster claims that the main beneficiaries of the London CCTV cameras are the Metropolitan Police and not the local authority itself, making it increasingly difficult to justify investment during their financial struggle.

What do the public think about the UK's use of CCTV cameras?

It's unclear at the moment what UK residents have to say about this situation, but one thing that has been brought to our attention is the opinion of tourists.

Tourists from abroad notice them almost straight away and comment on how how different our system is to theirs, where there are signs on every street corner informing you that you are on camera.

What does this mean for local London businesses?

Although many local shops install smaller business CCTV cameras that help to prevent theft in that shop, these privately owned cameras don't offer help to the Police in bigger crime investigations in the way the government owned cameras do.

This is because the government cameras are all linked up to make suspect tracking easier.

So, while having CCTV for your business won't necessarily help the police solve other crimes, it will help to protect YOUR property.

CCTV cameras will:

• Act as a visual deterrent
• Reduce your insurance premiums
• Identify culprits rather than just detecting them
• Help police to make arrests and convictions in the event of an incident

These government cuts mean criminals have a better chance of getting away with crimes such as vandalism and theft. This means that business owners now need to take responsibility and safeguard their properties to prevent this from happening to them.

It is your duty as a business owner to protect your business and your staff!

Quality, Affordable CCTV Solutions For Businesses

Here at Spy Alarms, we are NSI Gold accredited – the highest level in our industry.  We work to a set of very high standards and are audited on a 6 monthly basis to ensure that we’re maintaining them.  NSI Gold is recognised by all insurance companies and leads to the lowest premiums available.

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