It usually starts in the estate WhatsApp group. A van on a Bracknell close has had its side window smashed overnight and the tools taken. Someone posts a grainy doorbell clip of a figure in a hood. Three neighbours ask who installs proper cameras, and someone else asks whether it is even worth it.
For most homes, yes, with conditions. The cameras need to be wired, aimed at the places people actually approach the house, and recording somewhere you can export a clip from. Done that way, a system gives you evidence when something happens and puts off some opportunists. Done badly, it gives you a monthly fee and a blurry figure in a hood.
This guide sets out what the local crime figures show, what cameras can and cannot do, and what a sensible system looks like. It is not meant to worry anyone. Most of Berkshire is at or below the national rate for the crimes cameras help with.
What the local figures show
The figures below are police recorded crime for each council area, from the Office for National Statistics tables for the 12 months to June 2026, published in October 2026. They count crimes reported to and recorded by the police, so they reflect reporting habits as well as crime.
For context, across England and Wales in the same period there were about 5.9 residential burglaries for every 1,000 households, and about 5.0 vehicle offences for every 1,000 people.
- Slough: 365 residential burglaries (6.5 per 1,000 households) and 1,604 vehicle offences (9.6 per 1,000 people)
- Reading: 360 residential burglaries (5.5) and 907 vehicle offences (5.0)
- Windsor and Maidenhead: 329 residential burglaries (5.2) and 802 vehicle offences (5.0)
- Wokingham: 192 residential burglaries (2.8) and 436 vehicle offences (2.3)
- Bracknell Forest: 127 residential burglaries (2.5) and 485 vehicle offences (3.7)
In plain terms, Slough is above the national rate for residential burglary and nearly double it for vehicle offences. Reading and Windsor and Maidenhead sit a little below the national burglary rate and about level with it for vehicle crime. Wokingham and Bracknell Forest are at less than half the national burglary rate and below it for vehicle crime. Over the Surrey border, the same tables put Surrey Heath, which includes Camberley, and Runnymede, which includes Virginia Water, below the national rate for both.
None of that makes any town safe or unsafe. A low borough rate still means hundreds of incidents a year, and they are not spread evenly across streets. Cameras are about your property and the specific thing that worries you, not the borough average.
What cameras actually help with
The most useful evidence summary on CCTV is the College of Policing’s Crime Reduction Toolkit. It draws mainly on a review of 76 studies, most from the UK and the US. Across all settings, crime fell by about 13% in places with CCTV compared with similar places without it, and vehicle and property crime each fell by about 14%. The effect was largest in car parks and smaller in residential areas, at about 12%. There was no clear effect on violent crime.
Those studies are mostly public and shared-space schemes, not single houses, so treat them as a guide to what cameras are good at rather than a promise. The pattern matches what we see on driveways: cameras help most with property and vehicles.
On a home, a system earns its keep on:
- Vehicles on the drive. Break-ins, number plate theft and vans with tools inside. A camera at the drive entrance that can read a plate is the most useful single view on many houses.
- Parcels at the door. Who took it, when, and which way they went.
- Side gates and alleys. The route people actually use to reach the back of a semi or a terrace.
- Garden buildings. Bikes, tools and garden machinery in sheds and garages. Cover the outbuilding door, not the lawn.
What cameras do not do
It is worth being honest about the limits.
- They do not stop a determined burglar. Someone who has decided to get in will often cover their face and move fast. Cameras deter opportunists and record evidence. They are not a lock.
- Cheap wireless cameras drop out. Battery cameras on a weak WiFi signal miss clips, go offline overnight and struggle at the far end of the garden. Wired vs wireless CCTV explains why, and do you need WiFi for CCTV covers how wired systems avoid it.
- Cloud-only footage can be hard to get out. If the clip only lives in an app, exporting a full-quality file can be awkward, and nothing uploads while the internet is down. Our recorder vs cloud guide goes into this.
The College of Policing summary also found CCTV worked better alongside other measures such as improved lighting and fencing. At home that means decent locks, outside lights and a side gate that actually shuts.
Footage the police can use
After something happens, the point of a camera is a clip that helps. Useful footage has:
- A face at the door at roughly head height, not the top of a hood from a high gable
- A number plate at the drive entrance, where the car slows, with enough light at night
- The correct time and date, because officers will match it against other evidence
- A way to export it as a file, not just a screen recording of the app
Thames Valley Police advice is to download footage from five minutes before to five minutes after the incident, keep it safe and not delete the original from the device. If you cannot download it, leave the system running and note the date and time shown on the display. Officers can send you a secure link to upload clips to the force’s digital evidence system, and you can register your camera locations with Thames Valley Police in advance so they know to ask.
Angles that produce usable faces and plates are covered in where to position home CCTV cameras.
CCTV and home insurance
Do not buy cameras expecting a cheaper premium. The Association of British Insurers’ home insurance guidance says many insurers offer discounts for security devices such as burglar alarms, smoke alarms and high-quality window and door locks, and that your insurer will tell you which devices it approves. CCTV is not on that list, so ask your own insurer before assuming anything.
Where cameras can help is after a claim, with footage showing when and how something happened. If your policy has conditions about alarms or locks, cameras do not replace them.
Doorbell camera or a proper system?
A video doorbell is a reasonable start for a flat or a small terrace. It covers the front door well and catches parcel deliveries.
It is not a whole system. On most houses it will not see the drive entrance, the side gate or the garden building, and most doorbells run on WiFi with cloud storage, with the limits above. On a family house we treat a doorbell as a parcel camera alongside two to four wired cameras, not instead of them. How to choose a CCTV system goes through the options.
Neighbours and the law
Home CCTV is legal. The ICO says that if your cameras only capture your own property, data protection law does not apply. Once they record beyond your boundary, such as a neighbour’s garden, a shared drive or the street, it does: you need a clear reason, should not capture more than you need, should put up a sign, and must be able to respond if someone asks for footage of themselves. Home CCTV, UK law and neighbours covers it properly.
What a sensible system looks like
For most Berkshire homes, a sensible system is two to four wired PoE cameras and a recorder (an NVR) in a cupboard. Each camera has its own Cat6 cable carrying power and video, so nothing depends on WiFi. The recorder keeps footage on site, and the app lets you watch and export from your phone.
Typical positions are the front door, the drive entrance, a side gate, and the rear or a garden building. Not every house needs all four.
The cost depends on cable routes more than cameras, which we explain in CCTV installation cost in Berkshire. If you are planning Ethernet for the house anyway, camera runs can go in on the same visit, and what it costs to wire a house for Ethernet explains why that saves labour. The day itself is described in CCTV installation in Berkshire: what to expect.
Town patterns
- Slough: terraces and semis in Chalvey, Langley and Cippenham, with side alleys and on-street parking. A side alley camera and a front camera that can see the parked car are usually the priority.
- Bracknell and Wokingham: newer estates such as Jennett’s Park and Arborfield Green, where shared drives and parking courts are common. Aim at your own car and door, not the whole court.
- Windsor and Maidenhead: period streets with short front gardens, and homes near the Thames Path. Porch cameras need careful, neighbour-aware aiming.
- Ascot, Sunningdale and Virginia Water: gated drives, long approaches and outbuildings. A gate or drive camera that can read plates, plus cover for garages and garden buildings.
- Camberley: estate streets around Old Dean and larger Heatherside plots with garages and side access.
Is CCTV worth it for you?
If you want evidence when something happens, a deterrent at the approaches and a way to keep an eye on parcels and the drive, a wired system is worth it in almost any Berkshire town. If you expect it to make the house untouchable or cut your insurance, it will disappoint.
Call us on 01753 017 999 or use the contact form. Send photos of the front, the drive, any side access and the back of the house, and tell us what worries you: the car, the side gate, parcels or the shed. We will suggest the fewest cameras that cover it. Our CCTV installation service covers homes across Berkshire.