The Surveillance Society When it comes to catching the bad surveillance camera is a police officer's friend. There is little a criminal can his defense when the crime he is accused of committing has been caught on video. Once mainly seen in banks and government buildings, video surveillance systems have become standard Equipmenu en for the smallest convenience stores Even when criminals are not actually caught on video, just the presence of video cameras can make a location safer. In the hope of deterring criminals, some people post signs saying "Video Surveillance Is in Operation" even where no video cameras exist. This deterrence is probably one of the main reasons that Britons accept such a high level of video surveillance. Although the British public seems to approve of their use, the actual effectiveness of the cameras is far from clear. Studies by Norris and McCahill show that video surveillance had "a sustained and dramatic reductive effect in some areas" but "a negligible impact in others." Now, the British government is moving ahead to the next step in its surveillance program: an ambitious vehicle surveillance system designed to deter known criminals from making use of the country's roads