Camera tech gives criminals the limelight

Nowadays you can’t sneeze without someone catching it on camera.

We’re all living day to day with the ability to capture crime in our pockets, at the front of our cars and outside our homes.

But somehow it doesn’t seem to be deterring criminals.

A giant hole left where a cash point used to be is shocking, but the video of the damage happening is even worse.

Criminals brazenly tore a hole in a supermarket wall, having already stolen the vehicle they used in the raid.

They paid no attention camera trained on them throughout.

Is it because they thought they’ll never be caught?

Faith in the police to follow up on robberies is certainly dwindling.

But events like these always happened, and realistically, the criminals were a little preoccupied to be thinking about their audience.

Right now we all have the ability to capture and share evidence of crime, as we also saw in south London this week.

Footage of police being attacked without any intervention sparked similar calls that criminals were becoming bolder in the face of policing cuts and our culture was far more likely to look on then step in and help.

Whether that’s true remains to be seen.

There’s an argument that these things may have happened in the past, but the public at large being able to witness and analyse evidence is an entirely new phenomenon.

But when thieves can steal a vehicle from construction site and use it to destroy a high street, it may be time for the police to reassure us of the great work they do by catching those responsible.