And who watches the watchers?

Feb 10 2009 by John Knighton, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

There are huge problems. The police use image ‘grabs’ with the phrase ‘we would like to speak to this person in connection with an incident at ...” and the public is accustomed to accepting this as a euphemism for “This is the person that did it.” Conviction by camera is an abuse of justice.

The Government’s own national CCTV strategy document of 2007 admitted that more than 80% of CCTV footage was ‘far from ideal’ for identification purposes, surely one of its primary intended functions.

The No CCTV organisation said recently: “Surveillance cameras clearly present a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties and the alleged trade-off of safety or security are unproven and vastly outweighed by the risk of creating a police state.”

In 2007 members of the London assembly found that CCTV had a negligible effect on solving crime. London has more than 10,000 state-run cameras.

Last year Kirklees’ CCTV control room was upgraded to process even more images. This enhancement looks set to continue.

At the time, former highways chief and Kirklees and Mirfield Clr Martyn Bolt said this: “CCTV cameras are proving very effective in reducing crime and the fear of crime. But they have to be in the right places. They are part of our overall strategy for crime prevention and detection.”

And so they remain, and so their numbers grow, despite doubts on their effectiveness and their potential for misuse.