Nice editorial (FEBRUARY 06): CCTV IS a waste of time without good lighting and a law that forbids any person in a public place to conceal their identity.

Also your news report "Most Wanted": I tried to contact Crimestoppers site but they will not accept information on crimes via email and have an answering machine at 1.30pm on a Tuesday. No doubt they are suffering from a lack of funding.

Why did I look at this site? Because on Friday January 6 at 9.30pm, three armed robbers, one with a gun, entered my home assaulted my wife, and left with a safe.

They were captured on CCTV and a DVD has been given to the police. A limited amount of publicity has been raised, with the DVD to be used in two programmes now being produced.

However, as the attackers wore hoods, both before and after entry - one with a set of goggles on - the CCTV footage is of limited use (although one did slip up and we got a reasonable picture of a face).

It would appear that the three were stopped earlier by a patrol due to their odd appearance, but were let go as there is no law against driving around in a manner to restrict others from being able to identify you. It is high time that the government followed the French and USA by passing a law to forbid, without good cause, the concealment of ID in a public space - and improve the probability of capture via CCTV.

James Torrance (Proprietor), The Alarm Engineer, Greater Manchester

Source

Security Installer