Richard's Kingdom

Privacy, security and politics in the digital era

Tag archive for ‘cctv’

David Davis wants to fix CCTV too

There’s an interesting discussion on David Davis’ opinions about CCTV on Samizdata. Quoth Davis:
Today I have been explaining that I am not against CCTV- but if it is going to be used the cameras should be able to provide clear images and all of the evidence should be usable in court. Currently only 20% is [...]

Cardiff Council Considers CCTV

During the recent local Government elections, the Liberal Democrat candidates for my area campaigned in part on a ticket of installing more CCTV cameras. They didn’t really explain the benefits or trade-offs for the community, but they did claim the proposal was part of their strategy to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. I emailed them [...]

CCTV doesn’t work – let’s fix it!

If you live in the UK you’ll be aware of the pervasiveness of Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) systems, which apparently film the average Brit hundreds of times per day (although there are no reliable figures). It turns out this is a pointless exercise. CCTV is rubbish at preventing crime, uneconomical at detecting it, useless at helping [...]

Lessons in the panopticon: school fits toilets with CCTV

Astley Sports College in Dukinfield has installed £20,000 worth of CCTV cameras to monitor pupils. Even when they’re in the toilets.
The Manchester Evening News (via The ARCH blog) reports that the school has a bullying problem, and Deputy Head Ian Gilbert sees round-the-clock surveillance as the solution:
“[The cameras] have definitely proved their worth because pupils [...]