|
Are 4m CCTV cameras Orwell's
vision realised?
JULIA HORTON
Scotsman
Monday May 21, 2007
WITH stunning views, a low crime rate and dramatic beaches, the
Highland town of Tain - Scotland's oldest royal burgh - is starting
to be recognised as a perfect holiday destination.
So it might surprise visitors to learn that Highland Council has
spent £200,000 to keep them and the town's 3,500-strong population
under close surveillance.
The money was invested in nearly 50 cameras linking Tain to nearby
towns including Nairn, Dingwall and Thurso using digital recording
systems.
But while police and councillors say the move keeps people safe,
it is part of a growing trend which has led to the UK's information
commissioner, Richard Thomas, warning that the country has become
a "surveillance society".
Yesterday a leading policeman joined civil rights campaigners in
branding the spread of CCTV cameras an "Orwellian situation".
Ian Readhead, deputy chief constable of Hampshire, voiced his concerns
that sleepy towns and villages were wasting valuable resources on
spy cameras.
Singling out the town of Stockbridge in his area, where parish
councillors have paid £10,000 to install CCTV, he said: "I'm
really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras,
and what comes next.
"If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an
Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner? I
really don't think that's the kind of country that I want to live
in."
There are now about four million CCTV cameras in Britain, giving
people a chance of being caught on film a staggering 300 times a
day.
If the police themselves fear that Big Brother is taking over,
is it time to take a serious look at how such surveillance measures
are used, and whether they work?
The civil rights campaign group Liberty definitely thinks so.
Shami Chakrabarti, its director, said: "Politicians like to
present the police as ever hungry for more powers. Yet even the
police are concerned that we are losing the value of privacy.
"We are not calling for a blanket ban on CCTV, which we agree
can be useful in providing evidence, but we are worried that it
is being used as an alternative to putting more police on the streets
and that so much of the [police] budget is being put into CCTV when
it has not been conclusively proven to be a deterrent."
The Scottish Executive says it is "in the process of"
researching whether CCTV is value for money, with results to be
published "in due course".
However, police in Scotland maintain that whatever the situation
might be in England, the balance between protecting people and invading
their privacy is being maintained north of the Border.
John Neilson is spokesman on CCTV for the Association of Chief
Police Officers in Scotland and Assistant Chief Constable for Community
Safety with Strathclyde Police, which recorded a 75 per cent drop
in crime in Airdrie after a £130,000 CCTV system was installed.
He said: "I believe that CCTV in Scotland is proportionate
to need, identified through criminal activity [detected by police]
or community [-identified] need.
"In terms of reducing fear of crime, it has a big beneficial
effect, and in terms of gaining evidence for things that have happened,
like murders or antisocial behaviour, it has helped a great deal."
Surveillance has also helped people wrongly accused of crimes,
who have used CCTV footage to show they were miles from the crime
scene.
But questions remain about the benefits of CCTV in towns like Tain,
which seems an unlikely crime hotspot. Mr Neilson added: "It
is a small place but demand [for spy cameras] might be there in
terms of what the public think."
With ever advancing technology, there are now far more sophisticated
ways of detecting criminal behaviour.
Richard Thomas, the UK Information Commissioner, who is in charge
of protecting individual's rights to privacy, has pointed out there
are a host of new technologies to monitor people including micro-CCTV
cameras and microphones hidden in lampposts, overhead drones that
can track a person and micro-chips in clothing that can register
when a person goes into a certain area.
He said many of the technologies are being used to monitor people
for the purposes of boosting sales, for example triggering an advert
in a shop customised to a consumer's profile. However, the technologies
could also be put to use by the state.
"Do we want the same approach taken by social services, education
and police?" he asked. "There are some really important
questions to be asked about that."
A spokeswoman said the Scottish Executive was looking at a range
of options to make the country's streets safer, and stressed that
it believed the main way to achieve its aim was by employing more
polices.
But the SNP signalled that it was more than happy with the current
surveillance operation in Scotland - and would consider increasing
measures in future.
Four million snoops across the UK track our moves
FROM Stirling to the Shetlands, it seems that almost nowhere is
hidden from the intrusive gaze of the spy camera in Scotland today.
Since 1996, the Scottish Executive has awarded £10.3 million
to 161 new CCTV projects, paying for 2,102 cameras through its CCTV
Challenge Competition and Make Our Communities Safer Challenge Competition.
And that is just part of the picture - a further £2.5 million
was spent in 2002-3 alone to upgrade existing schemes.
Last November, CCTV reached Shetland, when councillors in Britain's
most northerly outpost announced plans to spend £200,000 on
installing up to 14 CCTV cameras around the islands' capital, Lerwick.
The move was aimed at tackling antisocial behaviour, although the
area already has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
Throughout Britain there are now around four million cameras -
one for every 14 people - which record the public 24 hours a day.
The spread of the spy cameras has led to growing fears that the
nation is turning into a "Big Brother society" like the
one envisioned by George Orwell in his novel 1984.
The rise of the CCTV camera also inspired the creators of the award-winning
film Red Road, in which a Glasgow CCTV operator takes revenge on
a man from her past after spotting him by chance on one of her screens.
CCTV - closed circuit television - systems link cameras to a control
room where they can be operated remotely.
As well as basic pan, tilt and zoom modes, features on the cameras
can also include night vision and computer-assisted operation and
they are becoming increasingly sophisticated as technology advances.
The cost of individual cameras varies. Police currently favour
mobile versions which can be moved between different locations according
to need. These cost about £15,000 each.
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
