Every so often an article like this appears in the newspapers. I somehow get the feeling that it’s done to test public opinion. I currently live in what is called the greater London area, where just last week they put up two poles for more CCTV cameras to be installed. Very sneaky of them to do it in the middle of the night.
CCTV a ‘threat’ to our privacy – metro.co.uk: Private life is suffering from too much CCTV surveillance of public places, a European human rights watchdog has warned.
Surveillance by private operators was a threat to personal freedoms, the report from the Council of Europe’s Commission for Democracy said on Wednesday.
The report recommended that anyone subject to such surveillance should be allowed access to the data collected and be informed of the use to which it is put.
Britain is one of 47 members of the Council of Europe. The group’s reports are purely advisory but the views on CCTV will be seized upon by opponents of surveillance. Britain has more ‘spy-cameras’ than anywhere else in Europe.
A Home Office spokesman said a review was under way into the issue of CCTV and how it can be used most effectively and fairly.
But he added: ‘There is no doubt that CCTV plays a vital role in the fight against crime.’
20–I wont untwist your words or perhaps the ideas that they reflect. Most of your replies are infact answered in the thread above.
You do introduce another factoid though–the fact that we presume the cameras will all be attached to recorders. I would hope so–can’t make a court case out of someone reporting what they saw on a camera, much better to have the video tape to show everyone what was at issue.
A large step in this direction is use of dash-board cams in police cars. That sword has been cutting both ways operating at times to show police misconduct. That is a good thing.