New powers of citizen's arrest should be given to security guards, says Witney's MP David Cameron.
At present guards cannot arrest suspected criminals unless they have seen them behaving suspiciously.
But the MP wants the law changed to take account of the growing use of CCTV in shops and town centres.
He said: "The current law is unclear. It seems to suggest that a citizen's arrest can only be made if the person actually witnesses the crime themselves.
"What if they are a security guard in a shop and one of their colleagues sees the crime committed on CCTV? The law needs to keep up with technology and what is actually happening on our streets. It was drafted in 1984 when CCTV barely existed."
He brought up the issue during a House of Commons debate on the Criminal Justice Bill as a result of talks with a former police officer.
Derek Maltby met the MP at a recent workshop on crime and drugs in West Oxfordshire.
He is an expert in CCTV and was brought in to set up the system in Witney which became operational 18 months ago.
The system operates with more than 20 cameras placed strategically round the town centre and public car parks, with a round-the-clock monitoring centre at Witney police station. In the Commons debate, Mr Cameron put forward the following amendment: "Any person may arrest, without warrant, any person who is accused by an apparently credible witness of having committed an arrestable offence shortly before the accusation is made."
The amendment failed because of a Government "guillotine" on the time allowed for debate.
Mr Cameron said: "I will be raising the issue again. We need to ensure that the powers of citizen's arrest still make sense to the modern world."
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