Alan Johnson has just sung out a press conference in praise of CCTV – even wheeling out a poor women who was attacked and whose attacker was caught on camera.
I therefore thought it would be worth reviving our argument against CCTV surveillance, as taken from our report, released in December, called Big Brother is Watching.
1. CCTV has been viewed by those controlling expenditure as a cheap alternative to conventional policing, with no demonstrable equivalent success in reducing crime.
2. The efficacy of CCTV is open to challenge, with cameras regularly turned off, footage being deleted before it can be used and pictures of insufficient quality for court purposes.
Several local council CCTV networks do 'not meet Home Office recognised specifications'.
3. Local authorities have spent an unprecedented amount of money to make the United Kingdom the most watched nation of people anywhere in the world. That amount of spending on CCTV is steadily increasing, with funds being diverted from conventional policing budgets to pay for the new technology.
This argument is best made by security expert Bruce Schneier
4. CCTV serves as a placebo for many local authorities designed to appease neighbourhoods suffering from anti-social behaviour problems.
It is our contention that CCTV has been part of the largest public misinformation campaign in recent memory. It is rare that you open a local newspaper and do not find a local council extolling the benefits of their latest multi-thousand/million pound CCTV network. Finding the real stories – such as this one – takes more effort.
5. As the number of CCTV cameras increases, so does the potential number of people being watched and the number of council officers watching – with implications for personal privacy and data security.
Put simply, we have more CCTV cameras than any other country on the planet and the number is rising all the time. A responsible government would say that it is time to take a second look at our penchant for camera surveillance, instead of using it as a stick with which to beat one's rivals.
The call we make in our election manifesto is quite simple – give people a choice: more CCTV or the money spent on other forms of law enforcement? Of course CCTV can be essential in catching criminals after the event; but wouldn't it be great if we could stop the crime occurring in the first place?
By Dylan Sharpe
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guy herbert
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Purlieu
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ralph
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John