ABSTRACT
A neglected aspect of the global growth of camera surveillance is what is done with its products. Some visual information produced as recorded camera surveillance images undoubtedly remains in perpetual storage, never to be activated; other images are periodically deleted due to technological limits or legal restrictions; still other images are extracted from storage because they later become useful information for institutions. This chapter explores how much and how surveillance images1 are used by police-supported Crime Stoppers programmes in several countries through a case study of Crime Stoppers advertisements.2 Privacy and other implications related to the use of surveillance images are discussed, in particular the transfer of images from private surveillance sources to police, and then to Crime Stoppers programmes that post the images in website advertisements and to the video-sharing website YouTube.3 This chapter also discusses who benefits from the transfer and use of camera surveillance images by Crime Stoppers, and who may be potentially harmed by this practice.
