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Police are considering installing a next generation of CCTV camera that is powerful enough to record people’s conversations up to 100 yards away. Ultra sensitive microphones may be attached to surveillance systems across the UK, so law enforcement has the chance to thwart aggressive behaviour before it turns violent. Councils and transport authorities have also reportedly expressed interest in installing the new systems before the London Olympics in 2012. However the Association of Chief Police Officers says a full debate on the technology’s impact on privacy will be needed before they can be installed in the UK. Already the smart cameras are live in 300 sites across Holland, where they currently detect the conversations of people in shops, city centres, jails and benefit offices. According to The Sunday Times, which has met the Dutch makers of the technology, one six week-trial in Groningen resulted in 70 genuine alarms, yielding a total of four arrests. Derek can der Vorst, director of Sound Intelligence, told the paper that the devices are technically capable of recording 24 hours a day. As a result, exactly how long they are in operation “really depends on the privacy laws in a particular country,” he said. Der Vorst added: “The cameras work on the principle that in an aggressive situation the pitch goes up and the words are spoken faster. “The voice is not the normal flat tone, but vibrates. It is these subtle changes that our audio cameras pick up on.” Responding to a future deployment in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office has said the audio cameras would be treated, under law, in the same way as CCTV footage. Under the IOC’s code, audio can be used on the grounds it detects and prevents crime, or apprehends and prosecutes the offenders. However, audio cannot be used for recording private conversations or conversations between staff members, as enforced under the first and third Data Protection principles. In a current guide on how employers should install and use CCTV, the Commissioner says: “If the equipment has a sound recording facility, this should not be used to record conversations between members of the public.” Greame Garrard, chairman of the chief police officers’ video and CCTV working group, reportedly said using audio-enabled CCTV would mark a “new step” for surveillance in the UK. “We would need to have a debate as to whether or not this is something the public think would be a reasonable use of technology,” he told the ST. His comments come as Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, published a report into Britain’s surveillance society – defined as “one where technology is extensively and routinely used to track and record our activities and movements.” In a section of the report entitled ‘what’s wrong with a surveillance society?,’ the IOC’s draw attention to an observation made after September 11, 2001. “Surveillance fosters suspicion,” said David Leyon, a leading sociologist and contributing author to the report. “The employer who installs keystroke monitors at workstations, or GPS devices in service vehicles is saying that they do not trust their employees. “Social relationships depend on trust and permitting ourselves to undermine it in this way seems like slow social suicide.” In supporting notes, another post-9/11 study is cited for proposing cameras that detect “just about anything” the state may need to know, including “the conversations of pedestrians.” The IOC responded: “The more that states, organisations, communities and people become dependent on surveillance technologies, the more there is an apparent ‘lock-in’ which prevents other options from being considered, and a comprehension gap which increases a dependence on expertise outside the democratic system. “ID cards are a key case in point and will inevitably increase our reliance on those providing both technological and commercial expertise.” Nov 27, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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