According to a news article on this site yesterday there are plans to install security cameras in the town’s cemetery to combat vandalism. It says a lot about crime levels in the town when even the cemetery has to have cameras to combat crime.

Personally I think the cost of almost £65k to install just two cameras is a complete waste of time and money as the cemetery is such a large area that it would require a whole network of cameras to keep it covered. There have been CCTV cameras in Wycombe town centre for years but still there is crime so I fail to see what purpose such cameras serve. As soon as the cameras went up in the town centre the yobs started wearing hooded tops to avoid detection.

Many generations of my own family are buried in Wycombe cemetery and I am a regular visitor there. From what I can see vandalism by yobbos is generally not a big problem and on the whole things are pretty peaceful there. The biggest loss of gravestones in the cemetery happened a few years back when the powers that be conducted stability tests on the stones for health and safety reasons. The stones that failed the test were simply laid down or propped up and removed after a short time.

Despite the spread of CCTV throughout our towns crime is still rising so it can be argued that it has little impact on stopping crime. There are now home CCTV systems available so you can wire your house up to see who is prowling around and I predict that in the next few years home CCTV will become as prevalent in residential areas as those infernal security lights that switch on when you walk up to them.

Vandalism may be a small problem in the world of crime but CCTV is not the way forward. We need real policemen on the beat to catch the yobbos in the act and tough sentences handed out by the courts rather than having “You’ve been framed” style videos of the crimes being committed. What do you think?