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There is 1 million less CCTV cameras then previously thought

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8159141.stm
Despite the revelation that there are almost one million fewer CCTV cameras in the UK than previously thought, Britain still appears to have far more watchful eyes trained on its population than other countries.

The article still shows that some UK cities have bloody huge amounts of CCTV cameras. It sounds inflamatory to some people, but I dont particularly notice intrusions into my life with the cameras about, and wouldnt really notice their presence, unless I got pulled up for doing something wrong, and then evidence provided.

Im not saying its right to move towards anything like a 1984 system. Though how many people complain about the CCTV inside a nightclub, or on private ground, how is that any different to in the public, where in a lot of cases, tapes are recorded over (or hard discs) when nothing of consequence happens anyway.

I guess the question is, do the slim benefits of being able to convict some criminals, out weigh the fact that CCTV does not prevent (but rather discourages) crime, yet to the normal person is little more than a hyped up 1984 scenario that people keep on rabbiting on about, as proven by the million or so CCTV cameras that we thought existed but dont.
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The belief that all CCTV is watched, that some Orwellian database is being used to track your movements is absurd and I'm amazed people think that way. it just doesn't happen, I can't think of anyone who is interesting enough to justify being followed by CCTV on a permanant basis.

    I've used CCTV cameras to detect God knows how many crimes, to identify people who would have got away otherwise. How is that a bad thing?
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Whowhere wrote: »
    The belief that all CCTV is watched, that some Orwellian database is being used to track your movements is absurd and I'm amazed people think that way.

    The issue is not whether it is being used to track us, but whether it can. I'm amazed you can't see that.

    We have 1% of world's population but something like 20% of its CCTV cameras. Have we got the best conviction rate for public offences? No.
    Weekender Offender 
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh I can see that. I do believe that it is used to track us, but why waste the resources to track people that are just going around their general business, would neither be financially viable, or doable to any mass degree.

    Do the benefits of the CCTV system in deterring crime, and helping bring to justice criminals, out weight (and I stress) any far fetched POSSIBLE uses of the system.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Skive wrote: »
    The issue is not whether it is being used to track us, but whether it can. I'm amazed you can't see that.

    Tracking the day to day lives of 60million people really isn't as easy as you make it out to be. To suggest that any organisation would have the time, finances, staff, equipment or even the will to do so is a little too paranoid, even for you ;)

    Nobody is that interesting.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MrG wrote: »
    Do the benefits of the CCTV system in deterring crime, and helping bring to justice criminals, out weight (and I stress) any far fetched POSSIBLE uses of the system.

    Do we have any statistics to give an indication of how effective CCTV has been in deterring crime?
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Whowhere wrote: »
    Tracking the day to day lives of 60million people really isn't as easy as you make it out to be. To suggest that any organisation would have the time, finances, staff, equipment or even the will to do so is a little too paranoid, even for you ;)

    Not everybody but somebody and what if that somebody was you? For whatever reason.
    Whowhere wrote: »
    Nobody is that interesting.

    You're competely not getting why and how a governement might use such tracking. Some groups are that interesting to some governments.

    We have anti terrorism laws being used wrongly, why not CCTV?
    Weekender Offender 
  • SkiveSkive Posts: 15,282 Skive's The Limit
    Do we have any statistics to give an indication of how effective CCTV has been in deterring crime?

    Being that we have the highest number of camera in the world by a long way you wou;d think our conviction rates for public ofences would be noticabley better than anywhere else yet..?

    And CCTV has been prooven to be not very effective at all as a deterrant.
    Weekender Offender 
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Not really a serious point, but if you think about it any young person now who in say 25 years time is running for prime minister; there would probably be a city council with footage of them falling over drunk.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I do hope so. It would be nice to see a politician who isn't so disassociated with the people they supposedly represent.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Not really a serious point, but if you think about it any young person now who in say 25 years time is running for prime minister; there would probably be a city council with footage of them falling over drunk.

    Not to mention facebook statuses from what they were 16 saying 'omg i shagged 'xxx' last night what doo i doooo!'. As David Cameron said quite rightly when asked if he had ever smoked cannabis that politicians were entitled to a private past. I rue the day when everything we do from the day we are born is documented in detail to become a permenent tar on our future prospects, because nobody is perfect. Dig deep enough and I am sure you can find skeletons in anybody's closet.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    [grammarnazi] "There is 1 million less CCTV cameras"? No, that should read There are 1 million fewer CCTV cameras". [/grammarnazi] :p

    I would argue that most CCTV footage is worse than useless. The quality of the footage is crap - you can hardly see the detail on most things. Case in point. Years ago, the local ITV companies (back in the days when ITV was actually a local network instead of the faceless entity it is now) used to run a feature in the afternoon from Crimestoppers. "Have you seen this person?", the over-excited lunatic on screen would ask us. We would then get to see some CCTV footage showing a crime being committed by a white man wearing a tracksuit. Nobody would be able to see the face on the man, even when it was zoomed in. I wonder what the response rate for that was.

    My advice? Let's get rid of more CCTV cameras.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Most CCTV is only used to let bored security guards zoom in on the cleavage of attractive young women anyway. It's largely useless for anything else.

    I personally don't have a problem with CCTV. It's not that sinister and I'm not interesting enough to be followed.
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