Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe says CCTV cameras should be installed by homeowners and businesses to help detectives solve crimes. We don't think he meant that they should be live feeding pictures to the local cop shop, but the thought is sort of there.

Hogan Howe also said that homeowners must make efforts to install equipment properly to avoid undermining inquiries. When the Metropolitan Police Commissioner was asked if business and home owners needed to make greater use of CCTV cameras and move them down to eye level.

He said:

“Over the last year as facial recognition software has got better we can apply the software to the images of burglaries or robberies and we can compare those images with the images we take when we arrest people. What we need to be able to do is to be able to compare that photograph with the images we have of people committing a crime."

He added that "taking the tops of their heads is not that helpful for facial recognition" which relies on the eyes and the configuration of the area around the nose and the mouth. Howe said it would be great if people would add more CCTV cameras "at face level.” [British burglars are so polite they wouldn't smash cameras staring at their face. Ed]