i don't believe it does deter crime, if it did, and with the amount of cameras we have here, then very few crimes would occur. People are often caught by a fluke, or something they have done at the scene of the crime, a print off a shoe, dna as well, and i am sure i read a while ago a policemans view was that CCTV is largely a waste of money. Our council just put them up, as most councils did, and no one sees this as sinister, that that are spying on people. Just like Stalinist Russia, if someone were monitoring my e mail or this site i wouldn't have a clue.