Oi, talking CCTV cameras coming to London

Despite growing concerns over the UK sleep-walking into a surveillance society, 20 more English towns (including London) have signed on for talking CCTV cameras. Already, an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras already installed across Britain. The new talkies are expected to cost about £500,000 (nearly $1 million) and target those who "litter our streets, vandalise our communities and damage our properties," according to Home Secretary John Reid. He goes on to state that the original trials in Middlesbrough were "hugely popular" where the local councillor says they've prevented fights, criminal damage, and cut litter levels. Is that enough? Cue the Orwellian dystopia chatter... now.

[Thanks Paul, Image courtesy of Peter Marshall]

[Ashley @ Apr 4th 2007 6:08AM]

Errmm....I live in the UK, and we've had talking CCTV cams in our city center for YEARS!

Pretty funny when you hear somebody shouting over the Mic "Could the gentleman with the black bmw please move the car away from the double yellow lines, thank you", and for the first few month, anyone near looked... lmao

[McGinley @ Apr 4th 2007 6:28AM]

Sure, they bring peace......but at what cost?!??

[Ashley Allen @ Apr 4th 2007 6:35AM]

It's quite simple, if your not a jerk it should bother you.

I think it's a good idea.

[Ashley Allen @ Apr 4th 2007 6:36AM]

Sorry, Shouldn't bother you.

[Jamar @ Apr 4th 2007 6:53AM]

No, it was more accurate the way tou first wrote it. Jerk or not, you shouldn't have to stand government surveillance 24/7. Besides, it's all recorded and stored away-this could drag you into all sorts of messes if they decide that you were behaving suspiciously around in the general area of a crime scene when you had in fact now known that a crime had taken place in that area and were going about your business as you do normally.

[Sheldon @ Apr 4th 2007 6:37AM]

I just have visions of a Dom Jolly type of affair where 'the camera' (well, the operators) start offering lifestyle advice ("Ooo, red shoes with those trousers, whatever are you thinking?" "He's cheating on you darlin, leave him").
Obviously the big worry is where does it stop; today: "litter our streets", tomorrow: smoking in public?

[Ashley Allen @ Apr 4th 2007 7:00AM]

it's hardly like the government are watching me 24/7. They don't have camera's in my bedroom.

This scheme is only for town centers and is only to stop you from doing things you shouldn't be doing anyway.

As someone who doesn't mug people or litter I have no problem with being watched in a town center.

[Max @ Apr 4th 2007 6:56AM]

I just saw this on BBC News. They tell the bloke to pick his can up off the bench and put it in the bin. It even tells him where the bin is.

Mind you, it does seem to work.

[Nick @ Apr 4th 2007 7:09AM]

*cities

London, last time I checked, wasn't a town.

[McHoffa @ Apr 4th 2007 7:10AM]

as long as it stay in public places there should be no worry... it is no different than police officers walking around, seeing you do things, and telling you to stop...

[Taylor @ Apr 4th 2007 7:36AM]

...Only if you have police officers on EVERY corner of EVERY street in the city.. Which, to me, sounds like a police state...
-Taylor

[ashmist @ Apr 4th 2007 7:28AM]

Still, disconcerting when you're picking your nose or repacking your lunch to know that it will all be stored somewhere, waiting to bite you in the arse when you finally run for prime minister.

[Zut @ Apr 4th 2007 7:38AM]

I think this is great!

People ALWAYS complain that there aren't enough bobbies on the beat, and short of recruiting new police officers, this is a great way to get them out there!

[chuck @ Apr 4th 2007 7:41AM]

and why would they store millions of hours of video of random people picking their nose? please.

now what they need to do is build in an aimable taser ;)

[zoara @ Apr 4th 2007 7:53AM]

I'd recommend Red Road as an excellent film about CCTV surveillance.

[Zam786 @ Apr 4th 2007 8:15AM]

camera to couple making love

"excuse mee can u turn 90 degrees left a little so i can see more action less body movement"

couple "um, what, who, where"

camera "stfu and make love i was just about to have a wank"

[Hank Cazorp @ Apr 4th 2007 8:19AM]

Of course, there are no cameras in the government agencies that are monitoring us. Ask yourself why their privacy is more important than yours - and why they can track our movements, but we can't know about theirs.

[Alex Yee @ Apr 4th 2007 8:20AM]

Oi! You! stop grafitting that tag. Instead we need
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

I saw this on the ten o'clock BBC news and i saw a CCTV camera which was owned by a company called Big Brother Security

[El N @ Apr 4th 2007 8:34AM]

"Every Step You Take" is an excellent new documentary about video surveillance in Britain (it has just premiered at a film festival, coming to Britain / US soon):

http://www.EveryStepYouTake.org

[Joe Grande @ Apr 4th 2007 8:52AM]

Hasn't anyone ever heard the phrase "who watches the watchers?" I'll add to that that if you don't do anything wrong, then why do they need to watch you? Britain should be very afraid...not that the US is far behind in their surveillance.

[Ian Jardine @ Apr 4th 2007 8:54AM]

Don't they say that the average Londoner is caught on camera around 300 times every day.

[Desperate Curiosity @ Apr 4th 2007 8:59AM]

The 'sarcastic' end line of your post "Cue the Orwellian dystopia chatter... now." signals to me that the very dystopia you may fear has already been absorbed into our social fabric, to the disturbing extent that it has now become matter-of-fact. If you intend to stimulate any sort of intelligible debate here then at least have the courtesy to take a look beyond the surface and challenge your readers. Don't just sit back and condescend to us from up high on your Technorati Top 100 throne; never forget that your audience is far more intelligent than your complacency can afford.

comment by Andrew @ http://www.writerspace.net

[Tim @ Apr 4th 2007 9:01AM]

1. Everything they film will be kept, have no doubt about that.
2. 'sleep-walking into a surveillance society' is exactly right, 4 million cameras... that is just insane...
3. Everybody should feel incensed about this, it is outrageous, of course it is a gross invasion of privacy, just because you are not doing anything wrong, does not mean that you do not value your privacy and should not have a say over it...
4. £500,000 will employ a couple of police officers for a couple of years. since only one of these cameras in a high street is hardly going to prove effective, you can count on quite a few per location. That should pay easily for a whole army of officers dedicated to that area alone. They would actually be able to takle problems first hand, and prevent violence and apprehend offenders.
Wonder how they feel when they can watch stabbings and muggings on CCTV and really tell the offenders off...'Oi you don't you mug that old lady, I say stop!, don't run away, I haven't finished with you, you bad boy!..., Oh well he's around the corner now..." That will cleasrly bo so much more effective than having a Booby on the ground, well done!
5. £500,000 to tell people of for dropping litter? It would pay for an army of Street sweepers, if that's your worry!
This is totally insane.

[Tim @ Apr 4th 2007 9:06AM]

Oh, that's embarrassing, meant to say 'Bobby', not 'Booby' and some dreadful typos, oh well.
I should read my posts through before I send them off...

6. What is the yearly running and servicing cost of these cameras? will probably put another 'Bobby' on the beat per camera...

[Tim @ Apr 4th 2007 9:11AM]

Oh, that's embarrassing, meant to say 'Bobby', not 'Booby' and some dreadful typos, oh well.
I should read my posts through before I send them off...

6. What is the yearly running and servicing cost of these cameras? will probably put another 'Bobby' on the beat per camera...

[Grindboy @ Apr 4th 2007 9:12AM]

I'm sure it's just a typo but can you change "20 more English towns (including London)" to cities please as contrary to popular belief we don't all live in castles or thatched cottages in Britain. In fact London is a Millionaire city (Over 1,000,000 inhabitants!)

Just my two pennies worth!
(Translation: Just my two cents)!! LOL

[Zach @ Apr 4th 2007 10:21AM]

I can’t believe how complacent you all are! I am glad that we don’t have near as many cameras in the US like you poor Brits do. What has happened to your government? The answer to crime is NOT more police. It requires fundamental changes in society to correct this NOT assigning your responsibility to the police. If ever citizen who saw a crime became involved and intervened, there would be less crime. It is the average citizen’s complacency with respect to crime around them that tends to foster it and allow it to grow.

What a heavy price to pay for safety if you sacrifice your freedom. I wonder how many of you Brits would scream like stuck pigs if they put cameras in your office to monitor how you work as well!!! This is a slippery slope that we travel down. You know this data will never be deleted. They’ll keep it on file forever under some pretext. How do you know that something innocuous you did now won’t become some major transgression later?

You Brits have already lost your country and don’t know it. Sad to say we in the US likely aren’t far behind. No wonder you get taxed at an absurd rate…just so you can buy more surveillance cameras and GATSO. You tax rate is astronomical. If you figured up all the taxes you pay, your government gets more of your money than you do!!!! At least in Russia you have more freedoms it seems than the UK. At least your tax rate is lower and you don’t have cameras everywhere. Sadly though with Putin in power it is going downhill pretty quick. At least if Russian sailors had been abducted the Kremlin wouldn’t have sat on their arse with their thumb up their bum and did nothing to retrieve them. I guess all the cameras to protect the UK didn’t do much to help their sailors. Iran tested you and you failed.

Does the UK have a spine any more? The only people your government stands up to is its own citizens! My family is originally from the UK and its said to see the decline of what was once a great society now fallen so far.

[James @ Apr 4th 2007 11:05AM]

2 pages of responses and not a single "I for one..." line? OK, I'll oblige:

"I for one welcome our back-talking all-seeing robotic overlords."


With that out of the way, I'd like to suggest that this is what you get when every potential criminal knows that their potential victim must, by law, be unarmed. If you outlaw guns/knives/mace, only outlaws will have guns/knives/mace. This is absolutely typical of a society that has placed themselves in such a mess: how to solve the problem? Let's install a camera that will *ask nicely* that whoever is committing the crime please stop.

[Julian Bond @ Apr 4th 2007 11:11AM]

So is it an urban myth that you can permanently disable a CCTV camera with a laser pointer? Perhaps there's room here for the next tin foil hat. A hoody with some embedded high output infra red LEDs.

My favourite bit of Banksy art is the graffiti next to the CCTV. "Oi. Who are you looking at"

[macona @ Apr 4th 2007 11:38AM]

You ought to be able to damage the CCD or CMOS with one of the larger green DPSS laser pointers but your run of the mill pointers wont do a thing.

[easy @ Apr 4th 2007 11:26AM]

I was in London a decade ago, sitting on the edge of a fountain near picadily when a disembodied voice from an unseen loudspeaker asked me repeatedly to "get off the fountain". I figured I better do as i was told lest the thinkpol come after me.

[Lowen SoDium @ Apr 4th 2007 11:36AM]

HALT Citizen!

[werdna @ Apr 4th 2007 12:33PM]

its Oy not Oi, get it straight.

[waLLy @ Apr 4th 2007 2:41PM]

Victory Gin anyone?

[Tom @ Apr 4th 2007 3:29PM]

I'm surprised no-one's pointed out the obvious yet, but oh well...

How do speakers invade your privacy? Did you think no-one was watching before? They aren't installing more cameras - just adding speakers to the old ones. I'm against CCTV but all for these new speakers. Prior to this all the police could do is watch the crime take place - yeah, real helpful. At least now litterers/muggers will be made aware that they are being watched, thus potentially preventing them from breaking the law for fear of being caught. Makes sense to me.

By the way - I find it (darkly) amusing that the Americans go on about our dreadful Orwellian police state (oh noes - it's a speed camera) whilst holding Britons and others without trial in Guantanamo. You all ought to be ashamed.

[Juaquin @ Apr 4th 2007 6:37PM]

Are you guys across the pond ever going to do something about this, or have they already rounded up all the humans and replaced them with robots who don't give a shit about freedom? You're giving our government ideas. Please stop.

[Stewart @ Apr 4th 2007 7:13PM]

we had 'em for years despite the calls of police state i don't think any of us in the UK have been sent to a prison without charge, without the right of habeous corpus or a fair trial or legal representation, or having been tortured like certain countries i could mention

[brassready @ Apr 26th 2007 5:47PM]

Wow. Sorry brits but you gotta admit this CCTV thing is getting a little outa hand over there. Not that we don't have them Stateside, but at least the cams don't talk shit to me when im pissing on the side of a building at 3 a.m. cuase the bars just got out and i can't hold it for 20 mintutes to get back to my house.