CCTV useless against drunks
January 18th, 2008Surveillance cameras do little, if anything, to prevent late night alcohol-fuelled crime and violence on Britain’s high streets, the country’s most senior police officer in the field has admitted.
[…]
He also admitted the public had been “misled” into believing that installing camera systems would have a big impact on anti-social behaviour.
The article goes on to say only those thinking ‘rationally’ about CCTV surveillance will be deterred from criminal activity. In fact most people don’t think about CCTV, never mind rationally even when sober – as a general tool it is bound to be a remarkably ineffective deterrent.
To combat the problem, Mr Gerrard said he would like all camera owners and operators to be required by law to produce high quality images using a standardised system so the police could use them effectively in court.
Unfortunately Mr Gerrard fails it. Higher quality images will not increase the ‘rationality’ of the ‘law-abiding’ general public. Higher quality images will not remedy the problem of indiscriminate (non-targeted) CCTV capturing irrelevant images of the public.
January 18th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Requiring higher quality cameras will of course, mean retrofitting the millions of CCTV cameras all over the country, which means that shareholders in the security companies will see their investments skyrocket.
That is what this is about, and it is what it has always been about; the ‘security’ vendors making a fortune out of the fear society.
Welcome back M2!!