Anniston, Alabama
Project Overview
The Anniston Police Department (APD) deployed closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in strategic areas across the city in an effort to deter property-related crimes and motor vehicle theft as well as improve investigations of these crimes. APD installed CCTV cameras in three hot spots across the city with three or four cameras at each location. APD also created a media campaign to highlight the use of CCTV in their larger crime prevention strategy. APD evaluated potential hotspots using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping and, where possible, match hot spots to similar control areas. The control hot spots were matched for the level of crime and type of area (e.g. business, residential, and housing). Evaluation of APD's SPI effort examined whether Part 1 visible property crime declined as a result of camera placement as compared to control areas using propensity score matching.
Methods and Findings
Research Design
The study used a quasi-experimental design to observe crime occurrence following the implementation of CCTV in three hot spots and three control areas, both with buffer zones. The SPI analyzed a nearly 18 month pre- and 18-month post-intervention period to measure changes over time, tracking property crimes, criminal mischief, and violent crime to measure diffusion of crime type.
Findings
- No statistically significant findings. However, this was expected due to low power and low counts of data. The analysis shows mixed results, with property crime increasing in certain target areas for certain crimes; however, the crime type reduction was not consistent across all the sites.
- Some decrease in property crime with no corresponding displacement of crime to another location or another crime.
