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Further evidence of council CCTV failure

When Big Brother Watch released our first report earlier this month – a study into the huge number of council controlled CCTV cameras - we condemned the enormous rise of almost 200% in 10 years for several reasons.

Among these reasons was the issue of councils spending large sums to get the CCTV installed, often to placate their residents, but then switching the cameras off if they find the budget is stretched, or failing to upgrade the technology when it breaks or the image quality is found wanting.

It is therefore with little surprise that we see that today the Lincolnshire Echo is reporting that a quarter of the CCTV cameras controlled by Lincolnshire Council are currently not working.

While this news is disturbing and disappointing, Big Brother Watch hopes that our report has perhaps encouraged a few more people to question the problems surrounding CCTV. 

When the cameras aren't working we get the worst of both worlds – they don't catch or solve crimes, and the police who rely on them leave the relevant areas un-patrolled with false confidence.

By Dylan Sharpe 

Posted on December 29, 2009 by Big Brother Watch Posted in CCTV
  • http://profile.typepad.com/6p0120a66f1060970b twitter.com/capybara10

    If the councils are so hell bent on having these elaborate and expensive CCTV cameras, then the least they can do is to ensure they are always working. People struggle to pay their extortionate Council Tax Bills every year, and all we hear are stories of how our money is wasted by profligate Councils.

  • NeverSurrender

    Surely you are not suggesting that you would like these intimidating devices to be working and taking high resolution images of us all the time?!!! The problem is not whether the CCTVs are working or not but their very existence on our streets depriving us of our privacy and our freedom! All permanently installed cameras must be completely removed and temporary cameras controlled with judicial oversight and only used where there is overwhelming justification.

  • Jim, London

    Actually, the article states that a quarter of cameras controlled by West Lindsey District Council (not Lincolnshire County Council, which your report could imply) are not working.

  • Shy Hermit

    Whether they are working or not they are the same from the viewpoint of the “watchee”. That is, the watched must behave as if they are being watched, as they don’t know which spy cams are working and which aren’t.
    The cameras serve to pressure us into conformist behaviour, whether they are working or not, so long as we don’t know which is which.
    Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon prison was designed using exactly this principle.

  • NeverSurrender

    I agree with you Shy Hermit. When someone points a gun at you the last thing that you think is, “It probably isn’t loaded anyway.” The effect is the same either way. You are intimidated.
    As I said before the problem is the very existence of CCTV on our streets not whether they are working or not. The concept of living under constant surveillance is abhorrent. Our freedom has been taken from us and we are treated like suspects. We cannot even be trusted to walk down the street without being watched. It is appalling!