THERE is more proof, if it was needed, that spy-in-the-street TV cameras cut crime.

This time it comes from Accrington where, just a month after their installation in the town centre, overall crime has been slashed by half.

Indeed, the success rate is even higher across a whole category of offences - from shoplifting to criminal damage.

And there is no evidence that the cameras' contribution to a safer, more secure town centre has simply pushed crime elsewhere.

But, in being confronted with these encouraging facts, might we also have the satisfaction of something else.

Might we have an apology from those in Accrington who protested at the scheme to instal the cameras with specious claims that they might impinge on the civil liberties of people?

For we know of no greater affront to a person's liberty than of him or her being a victim of crime.

And the fact that these allegedly sinister TV cameras are upholding in quite remarkable fashion the freedom of thousands of people suggests not only that the arguments of their detractors are hollow, but also that they should at last shut up.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.