Surveillance Cameras in Britain Not Effective?

zymurgy_cat writes "An interesting piece in The Christian Science Monitor questions whether or not the 4 million plus cameras in Britain are effective in deterring crime. It touches upon the usual issues of privacy, who has access to the tapes, and so forth. Despite this, people still seem to prefer the cameras."

Re:Why all the concern?

[26199]

*cough* Data Protection Act *cough*

We're actually very well off in the UK when it comes to private information. Companies dealing with America have to have their American counterparts agree to abide by the same rules, otherwise they can't share data.

Dubious effectiveness

[m00nun1t]

Presumably following the trend, you see many london buses have cameras installed in them, and signs letting you know about that.

A few years ago while on a bus in London late at night (number 52 towards Kensal Green) I was mugged. Of course I spoke to the police, and amongst other things asked if they could get the photos/video from the bus.

They investigated. The answer? The cameras aren't real - they are dummies there as a deterrent. I wonder if having a fake camera is better or worse than no camera - the public feels safer but I bet most of the criminals know they are fake. The worst of both worlds?

Re:Why all the concern?

[another misanthrope]

practical applications of surveilance: You log onto the websites you read in the morning. This info is captured by your ISP. you then stop by the gas station, using your easy pass to fill up your car. this info is captured by the gas station database. Then, using your fastlane, you get on the highway and drive 2 exits. This is logged in the speedpass database. You get to work, login to the network and begin working. Your time of arrival and time you actually spend working are logged. as well as what you typed (keystroke recorder). Don't forget they can record your conversations too via the computer.

It happened here in the US in the past couple of years. A woman filed sexual harrassment charges against her company and won when it was discovered that the company was recording every conversation near a computer with voice activated mics inside the machines. the conversations were stored on a server and were used as evidence in the trial. It would be pretty easy to write up a program that records how much time you are actually spending working on your computer. Why should the company pay you for time you spend in the toilet? piss on your own time buddy. Why should they pay you for mistakes? they are paying you for CORRECT work. If any of this seems unlikely, think about how many full (40 hours) time jobs there are now. Best buy, which just opened a store in my area, consideres full time 30 hours! no benefits, no overtime. They are not unique. So when they can get away with that, how far away is it to impliment the scenario I just described?

By the way a couple of years ago doubleclick, the company that is responsible for most of the banner ads you see, bought the company that has to the largest consumer database in the world. Do you think they won't use it? Do you trust corporations to do the right thing and pass up this opportunity to make a ton of money. Enron, Worldcom, and the others make the answer clear to me.

Re:What about the police?

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent a lot of time around cops too, when I was homeless. To me, a cop is the guy who rousts you every morning to get you out of sight before the commuters head off to work. I heard some good ones in those days, like "we had a report of a man with a shotgun in the area" -- oh, so that's why you get to frisk me and go through all my stuff, scattering everything in the dirt. I wasn't breaking any laws, not even anti-sleeping or anti-blanket ordinances. So my question to you is, am I paranoid?

Re:Why all the concern?

[Lord Kano]

Witch burnings?

The Salem Witch trials were conducted before there was a Constitution.

Re:Why all the concern?

[bobbis.u]

I can't believe the arrogance in assuming that anyone else actually cares what you do all day. There are about 58 million people in the UK. Everyday most people get up, walk down the street, and perhaps even pick their nose (shock horror!). Now, when you see someone picking their nose, do you quickly pull out a camera and take a photo to blackmail them with? Do you follow them home and tell their family? If you are normal, you don't do these things. You probably don't take any notice or do anything about it.

CCTV requires someone to actually watch the footage for there to be any real invasion of privacy. Do you honestly think anyone could be bothered to watch 100's of hours of footage on the off chance you picked your nose in one frame?

Now imagine someone is murdered in the otherwise deserted street at 6:00 in the morning. Then the police can look at the tapes and see what happened/who was there. Even then they won't care whether you picked your nose on a tape two weeks previously.

Also, as other posters have pointed out, when you are in public, you can expect other people to see what you are doing. It doesn't make any real difference if it is being filmed. In order for it to be an invasion of privacy they would have to put a camera in your home or somewhere private. I don't think this has happened anywhere yet.

Bottom Line: You're not important and no-one gives a shit about what you do as long as it doesn't affect them.

For future reference

[Anonymous Coward]

This is too far into the threaded comments to troll effectively.

Witches Were Not Burned in America

[Mad Man]

was Re: Why all the concern?

Witch burnings? [slashdot.org]

The Salem Witch trials were conducted before there was a Constitution. [slashdot.org]

Actually, no "witches" were burned in America. From http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/faqs.html [salemwitchtrials.com]

Were the victims of the Salem witch trials burned at the stake?

With the exception of Giles Corey--who was crushed to death for refusing to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, the executed were hanged, not burned. In Colonial America, witchcraft was a felony punishable by death by hanging. However, in Europe witchcraft was considered heresy and punishable by burning at the stake.