Talking CCTV to Scold Offenders in UK

linumax writes "The most monitored nation of the world is getting an interesting new service. According to a BBC News story, "Talking" CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England.They are already used in Middlesbrough where people seen misbehaving can be told to stop via a loudspeaker, controlled by control centre staff."

Dupe

[QuantumG]

CCTV Cameras In UK Get Loudspeakers [slashdot.org]

September 17, 2006.

Re:ATTN: SWITCHEURS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Real Mac users don't use Macs for the image. Real Mac users didn't just buy their Macs last week at Hot Topic. We've been here on the Mac platform since 1984 and believe me, we hate the recent influx of switcheurs almost as much as we don't give a damn about PC users.

Re:ATTN: SWITCHEURS!

[Anonymous Coward]

You fucking fail. It's Clarus with a "u." Now GTFO.

Re:What a lot of Americans don't realize..

[c_forq]

IANAL, but in the US you in pretty much all cases you are capable of responding with equal force (if I person punches you, you can punch them, however you can't nail them in the face with a hammer). In cases where there is a reasonable threat to your life you can respond with greater force, even to the point of maiming or death. What a reasonable threat is varies state to state, as I understand it. I know in some places they have upheld use of firearms against trespassers, and I've also heard in Texas firearms are allowed against someone defacing or vandalizing your property (though the way I've heard the Texas law is if you yell or warn the person and they stop their vandalism then shoot them it is considered retribution and you are open to criminal charges - so it is better to shoot first and ask questions later). My knowledge the Texas law is hearsay, and very well could be false, but from the time I've spent in Texas it wouldn't surprise me if it were true.

Re:What a lot of Americans don't realize..

[Gordonjcp]

That is entirely untrue. What a lot of Americans fail to realise is that the Queen has *no* power of any kind.

I'm a Brit and...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a Brit and I don't feel like I'm in the middle of a crime epidemic of any sort. People in the UK /DO/ very much care about rising CCTV camera numbers and various other issues. However, it's not clear what to do about these. The problem is that liberties are erroded so slowly that there's nothing to protest against.

The UK is obsessed with issues such as safety, anti-social behaviour, and crime. We are becoming a narrow-minded nation which has forgotten what common sense is and seeks to address perceieved social problems by combating the symptoms rather than understanding the causes. In many cases these problems don't really exist and in attempting to "combat them" we end up creating the problem we were seeking to avoid.
General examples:

-Safety:
a. I live in Oxford and on my way to work each morning I cycle through a field through which a river runs. The council has seen fit to destroy the landscape with several large signs saying "caution deep water." WTF? No shit.
b. My milk now has a sign on it saying "does not contain nuts"

-If you think CCTV is bad:
- We will soon have a network of cameras which can ID number plates and track vehicles.
- The government doesn't think that's enough so they want to add trackers to vehicles to know /exactly/ where they are. This supposed to be for purposes of extracting motoring tolls.
- The police now have the power to grant a co-called anti-social behaviour order or ASBO [wikipedia.org]. ASBOs are generally granted against teenagers. Key thing is that the order doesn't have to go through a crimimal court so is easy to apply. The idea is that the order places restrictions as to what a particular person can do. e.g. not allowing them to mix with certain friends. The killer is that breaching the ASBO becomes a criminal offence--so meeting your mates is now illegal. Depending on the circumstances, such a breach could see you in jail. ASBOs don't work. In fact, kids who don't have one feel left out if all their mates do and so they break the law in order to fit in. Kids who do have one often ignore it. Then they end up with a criminal record. These kids are learning to treat the state as their enemy not their ally. About a year ago we brought out the super ASBO [telegraph.co.uk] to combat organised crime.

- All these things (e.g. CCTV and speakers) are related: in the UK our rights are being erroded in the name of "safety" and "cutting crime." It is motivated by goodwill, but the result is that the government is arrogantly accumulating power in a potentially dangerous way. There is a patronising "we know best" attitude which is justified by vilifying certain social groups and creating an artificial climate of fear (Iraq war, anyone)? People in the UK *DO* care about these issues.