And who watches the watchers?

Feb 10 2009 by John Knighton, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ELECTRONIC eyes now quietly watch us as we go about our business, in every Kirklees urban centre, recording our every gesture and movement.

As CCTV technology improves, and the advocates of surveillance win more and more arguments, our lives will be recorded even more extensively and in ever finer detail.

Are we happy with this?

There’s an argument that you’ve nothing to fear from CCTV – closed circuit television – if you’re a regular, upstanding citizen.

Only the bad guys worry that they are being filmed.

But two issues continue to vex: infringements of our right to privacy, and miscarriages of justice based on camera-led assumptions.

Last week a House of Lords report demanded reforms in CCTV operating principles to safeguard democracy and privacy.

Kirklees now operates more than 100 cameras in Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Batley, Holmfirth, Honley and trouble hotspot Brackenhall.

There are many times that number of cameras operating on independent systems in council premises, offices, shops, building sites, bus and rail stations and so on.

The Kirklees CCTV video images are fed by fibre optic cable of phone line to a central control room in Huddersfield.

The carefully vetted staff can patch video through to the police if they spot a potentially criminal incident developing.

Video tapes are kept for a month, after which they are allegedly wiped. Only material wanted for use as evidence is kept longer.

Kirklees has its own regularly updated code of conduct for CCTV use, and it has been written with reference to the Data Protection and Human Rights acts, though some believe it is not always adhered to.