More CCTV cameras needed

[TimberWolf]

I'm growing fond of CCTV cameras, but there aren't enough of them. Why not install them in random street light posts, where it might be done for peanuts using the existing electrical supply for energy and communication. Storage is cheap now too.

I gather some people don't like these cameras, though I don't recall their reasons, except they often quote 'if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to hide' as if this supported a case against the use of surveillance. I doubt anyone would be the slightest interested in seeing person after person on video, if indeed anyone was employed to do so except where a crime had taken place, so privacy isn't much of an issue.

It's not just of assisting in obvious mysteries such as the Joanna Yeates murder (which the existing small number of cameras appear to have assisted a great deal), but also for any crime, from car theft to antisocial behaviour.

Anyone wearing a hoodie or a blanket would obviously look suspicious too.

[RichardCranium]

I gather some people don't like these cameras, though I don't recall their reasons

Abuses of surveillance cameras

I'll swamp you with links, if you want.

[TimberWolf]

Abuses of surveillance cameras

I'll swamp you with links, if you want.

I read the first few examples in the link above and they related to criminals using them on cash point machines and perverts in changing rooms. Different issues entirety, as of course I don't propose that these cameras are used in changing rooms, though it might be worth considering placement of cameras in not overlooking cashpoint machines and others. Fixed focus, immovable and unmonitored is my proposal. You'll have to do better than that.

[hyperD]

I'm not too sure on this one TimberWolf. Like you say, if they stop crime and public disorder on the high street then that's a good thing. I had my bike stolen in the high street within 10 mins but now they have CCTV so I would like to think there would be less opportunity for this.

But I am uncomfortable with the idea of more and more surveillance intruding on our lives in principle as it's simply another small step heading towards a more totalitarian type state with loss of liberty. Especially with the whole “we need to reduce your liberty to enforce your protection” type stuff.

[RichardCranium]

Tens of thousands of CCTV cameras, yet 80% of crime unsolved | News

[RichardCranium]

Most CCTV cameras are 'illegal', watchdog claims | News

[RichardCranium]

George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house | News

According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras (this was 4 years ago) - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.

This week, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) produced a report highlighting the astonishing numbers of CCTV cameras in the country and warned how such 'Big Brother tactics' could eventually put lives at risk.

The RAE report warned any security system was 'vulnerable to abuse, including bribery of staff and computer hackers gaining access to it'. One of the report's authors, Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.

One fear is a nationwide standard for CCTV cameras which would make it possible for all information gathered by individual cameras to be shared - and accessed by anyone with the means to do so.

The RAE report follows a warning by the Government's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that excessive use of CCTV and other information-gathering was 'creating a climate of suspicion'.

[RichardCranium]

They don't work.

YOBBISH behaviour at Grimsby's hospital has dropped by a third since security officers started using state-of-the-art mobile CCTV body cameras.

New figures have revealed a fall of 33 per cent in security incidents at the Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital Grimsby – from 115 between July and September last year to 77 one year on.

The story is full of hype but the reality is that WITH cameras assaults have gone from 2.2 assaults per week to 1.5 assaults per week. So instead of two people a week being assaulted, it is one or two people a week. Big deal.

Especially since they are each single data points.

[TimberWolf]

George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house | News

Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.

Who may well have a CCTV camera installed in his own driveway

Why would anyone want to bribe the police to see CCTV footage of a street, when they can just go to the street themselves and get a much better view.

[RichardCranium]

Volunteers needed to run Market Drayton CCTV « Shropshire Star

"Volunteers needed to run Market Drayton CCTV"