other areas of the country.

Sgt. Gordon Tyerman of the Surrey Police Service, who is in Bermuda to help train the Reserve Police operate the system, said in his experience the presence of such cameras in a specific area did not chase criminals to other areas.

"Many crimes are crimes of opportunity,'' Sgt. Tyerman said and gave the example of handbag snatching. "These crimes tend to occur in particular places where the opportunity exists. So they do not go elsewhere because of the presence of cameras.'' Sgt. Gordon added that if other types of crimes did increase outside of the city, there would be more Police officers available to deal with them since having a CCTV system in Hamilton would cut down on the number of Police needed to patrol the streets.

He said with CCTV systems in the UK, the selling of drugs on the street had decreased by 32 percent and other crimes had decreased from ten to 25 percent.

Sgt. Gordon added that certain crime statistics would increase because more people would be caught and prosecuted for offences with the system.

He noted that the fight against crime would be more effective because officers could be dispatched to trouble spots more quickly when camera operators could see trouble brewing.

"The system provides a safety net for monitoring towns and cities,'' he said.

Sgt. Gordon also noted that there would be a public audit committee which could review any tapes to ensure that the system was being used ethically and correctly.

And he said it would be possible for the tapes to be used by civilians in civil matters as evidence once legislation governing this had been passed.