If there was ever any doubt about the effectiveness of CCTV cameras in helping to combat crime it must surely have been dispelled by the figures released today. They reveal that the CCTV network in and around Bradford has proved to be a very useful weapon indeed against a wide range of criminals.

There were people who challenged the introduction of these cameras on the grounds that they were an invasion of privacy. That might well be true, but as we have pointed out many times, those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear from them.

Besides, if they invade the privacy of burglars and shoplifters, drugs dealers and gunmen as they go about their business, that is surely the sort of invasion all law-abiding members of society can tolerate.

The figures are impressive: 256 incidents captured on camera between January and October of last year in central Bradford, Keighley, Bingley and Shipley, leading to 359 arrests.

As CCTV manager Phil Holmes points out, the cameras are not just useful in catching law-breakers. They are also bound to act as a deterrent because criminals realise that with a camera watching them they stand a much greater chance of being arrested. What's more, the fact that an incident has been recorded on camera gives victims greater confidence to report it and obviously increases the chances of securing convictions.

With the recent introduction of a dozen "rapid response" CCTV cameras to shift around the district's crime hot spots, there's every reason to hope that the next batch of figures will be an even more emphatic vindication of their usefulness.