Closed circuit cameras capture Britons hundreds of times each day
By DON MELVIN
Cox News Service
Friday, August 12, 2005
LONDON ?- Like most Britons, Andrew Baines treasures his privacy.
When he and his wife Janet moved five years ago to the 160-person Hampshire village of Hatherden, 70 miles southwest of London, they did what the English do: they set about landscaping, not only to beautify their surroundings but also to protect their privacy.
"Quite unlike the States, where it's all sort of open to the world, the traditional British way, one might say, is to have your own area with fences, hedges and the like," Baines said. "We value that more than anything."
Yet when he ventures away from his home, his image is recorded several hundred times a day, almost without his being aware of it. London, where he works, has more closed circuit television cameras than any other city on earth, experts say.
"London has been the surveillance capital of the world for certainly the last 10 years," said Simon Davies, director of the British-based advocacy group Privacy International. "There is nothing like London anywhere in the world ?- nothing that even approximates London."
Usually, Closed Circuit TV cameras blend into the background like wallpaper, and are little thought about. But CCTV images of the London transport bombers of July 7 and the attempted bombers of July 21 were widely broadcast in Britain, pushing the issue of the cameras ?- and whether the benefits outweigh the intrusion ?- once more to the fore.
Law enforcement officials hail them as a tool in crime detection. Advocates of privacy and civil liberties assert that crime can be prevented far more effectively and cheaply through better lighting, and that the embedding of surveillance in people's daily lives is harmful.
"We stop expecting privacy," said Gus Hosein, an expert at the London School of Economics. "It's really screwing around with our sense of individuality."
For Baines, 61, an executive for a large British charity, the surveillance starts early in the day. From his house, with its fences and privacy hedges, he drives 10 minutes to the train station in Andover, mercifully missing any of Britain's more than 4,000 unforgiving speed cameras.
As he waits for his train at what he calls "a pretty low-key country station," he is observed by 17 CCTV cameras ?- cameras he was unaware existed until he was asked about them.
He escapes observation on the 70-minute ride to London but that situation may not last forever. South West Trains, which runs this line, already has cameras in each car of 155 other trains, and is preparing to outfit 91 more.
When Baines debarks in London's Waterloo station, he is again under observation. Network Rail, which runs 10 stations in London, recently finished installing a $31 million system of 2,500 cameras, a couple of hundred of which are in Waterloo.
"It's a fantastic new system," said P.J. Taylor, a spokesman for Network Rail. Some of the cameras can be made to swivel to take in other views or follow someone. The images are recorded and stored at each station and also at an undisclosed location, and they are kept for 31 days.
"Obviously, the events of the last few months have shown the worth of CCTV," Taylor said, referring to the capture of the alleged attempted bombers of July 21.
In addition, he said, the cameras have helped solve petty crimes and document the reasons for slips and falls. Victoria Station used to have a bad reputation but CCTV cameras have contributed to a significant drop in crime there, he said.
From Waterloo, Baines boards the Jubilee Line of the London Underground, a system equipped with about 6,000 cameras ?- a number that will double in the next five years.
Two stops later, at Green Park, he emerges for a brief walk through central London, where surveillance cameras are mounted on poles, storefronts or in parking lots.
A person in London is probably caught on camera and average of 500 to 600 times a day, said Davies, the director of Privacy International.
"Now surveillance is embedded in our day-to-day, minute-to-minute lives," he said.
The profusion of CCTV cameras in Britain started about 15 years ago in response to soccer hooliganism, and then spread. "It's kind of like a bad virus," Hosein said.
Public acceptance of the cameras may have been given a boost by the circumstances surrounding the 1993 murder of 2-year-old Jaime Bolger in Liverpool. The killers, two 10-year-olds, were captured on a surveillance camera leading the toddler away from a shopping mall.
Law enforcement officials say the cameras are an important tool in solving crimes and protecting the public.
But advocates of privacy rights and civil liberties contend they are an intrusion that does little to fight crime. Davies, for instance, said that the CCTV images proved of no evidentiary value in the Bolger case, and the suspects were convicted based on their confessions.
And the advocates dismiss the argument that, if people have nothing to hide, they should not mind being observed.
"If you have nothing to hide, why are they watching you?" Hosein asked. "It's taking the legal system and turning it on its head."
Some experts are concerned that the political climate, in response to terrorism, will combine with rapidly advancing technology to erode privacy even further.
The British government has proposed that all citizens be required to carry identity cards with computerized chips, and that a database be created with computer-readable "biometric" information on everyone's fingerprints, faces or irises.
Another proposal, designed to ease rush-hour road congestion, would tax drivers different amounts for driving different roads at different times of day. Due to go into effect perhaps 10 years from now, it would likely involve satellite tracking of chips installed in every vehicle in Great Britain.
Baines said that concentrating too much information in the hands of government does, at some point, become dangerous.
"I certainly think that would be, because that would be like having a chip in oneself," he said. "You do have the privacy now of driving to a highland in Scotland and going up a mountain without anyone actually knowing you're there. But given the way technology does develop, in a number of years that might seem the most normal thing in the world. Yes, I do have a concern ?- the Big Brother syndrome."
But for now, he feels well-served by Britain's strict data protection act. Like many Britons these days, he is quite willing to trade some degree privacy in exchange for real improvements in security and public services.
And he does not flinch at all from the constant observation of CCTV cameras, or even view them as an intrusion.
"I'm neither famous nor a criminal," he said, "so I have no concern about my movements being known."
Source[/color]
Pictures of the faces of the terrorists who attacked London's transport system -- first on 7 July and then again on 21 July -- circled the world almost immediately. They were taken by closed-circuit television cameras, or CCTVs, at London's subway and railway stations. CCTV cameras have proved a vital tool in the fight against terrorism. And in London, they seem to be everywhere. According to a recent survey, London is under greater camera surveillance than any other city in the world. Some Londoners complain they feel they are constantly being watched like a character out of George Orwell's novel "1984." But most city residents say that under the current circumstances, it's probably the lesser of two evils.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace