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Essay on CCTV Technology and Use

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Introduction

The UK is the world leader in video surveillance. Britain is monitored by 4 million CCTV cameras, making us the most watched nation in the world.

There is one CCTV camera for every 14 people in the UK. If you live in London you are likely to be on cameras 300 times a day. (Liberty: 2003) As Young points out CCTV is "a web of surveillance which far exceeds anything that is historically known . . . It can invade privacy and make Orwell's 1984 a reality. But it can also . . . be liberating and protective. Therefore, it may be socially beneficial as well as harmful." (Young, 1999: 192)

CCTV then, has the ability to simultaneously intrude and protect. Whether it protects at the expense of people's civil liberties and, if so, whether this is always beneficial is the focus of this discussion.

What is the technology/technological issue?

Video technology first emerged in the 1960s, when it was used sparingly and by the late 1990s it became all-encompassing (Hesse, 2002). It is suggested that the reason for its growth was three fold. Firstly the reason for its growth was that local authorities began to compete for government funding for CCTV schemes, secondly New Labour embraced CCTV as part of its punitive stance; and thirdly images of James Bulger strengthened beliefs that CCTV worked (Coleman & Sim, 2000).

Prior to the introduction of the Human Rights Act 1998 in 2000 there was a great deal less public concern for civil liberties. Today, advances in computer technology such as Video Motion Detection (VMD) are providing users with faster, more accurate and automated functions for CCTV systems (Hesse, 2002). Automated Video Surveillance (AVS) has improved in quality. Applications include: raising an alarm; starting video-recording; alerting security personnel; and dialling up connection to other sites. This allows a saving of space, addresses operator concentration problems and reduces manpower (ibid.). Britain has seen substantial public and private investment in open-street CCTV surveillance (Crawford, 1998), perhaps because of its assumed ability to reduce crime and fear of crime (Ditton, 2000) in a 'risk' society obsessed with the search for security and safety (Bauman, 1999).

What are the implications for crime and rights?

Installing CCTV to tackle criminal and disorderly behaviour is an example of primary crime prevention (Brantingham & Faust, 1976) or situational crime prevention (Clarke, 1992. Edwards and Tilley (1994) state that CCTV may prevent crime by providing more effective deployment of security guards by deterring potential offenders, as the risk of being caught is increased; by obtaining evidence that enables offenders to be found and convicted; by reassuring town-centre users they are safe; by warning those who behave suspiciously; by highlighting attention to crime in the city centre; by allowing offenders' movements to be tracked; by enabling more effective town-centre management; and by reducing the time available to commit those crimes that require it.

In addition, CCTV may allow more people to feel able to frequent the area under surveillance and remind them, through its presence, to take elementary security precautions (Welsh & Farrington, 2002).

CCTV is promoted as a tool in reducing the fear of crime (Herbert & Darwood, 1992), and in improving people's feelings of safety after dark (particularly when combined with street lighting) (Brown, 1995). This is however arguable as in areas where there is CCTV police are less likely to be in areas where CCTV is concentrated in the first place (Norris et al., 1998). Furthermore the risk of violence towards women remains in the private, not the public, sphere so that CCTV does little to prevent such crimes.

City Centres are where CCTV is most concentrated in city centres Young people regularly visit city centres at night and feel relatively safe. Ordinary fear can be viewed as a natural, functional, even creative element (Ditton, 2000). To remove the element of risk, unpredictability and insecurity is, arguably, to remove one dimension of public life that encourages individuals to tolerate and accept the presence of those different to themselves. Therefore, CCTV might reduce the potential of public space to be genuinely civilising and civic (Oc & Tiesdell, 1997). Also, installation of CCTV might not only fail to make the unsafe feel safe, but might also make the already-safe feel safer (ibid.); or the presence of cameras may itself be a fear-generator, (people may believe that if cameras are needed, there must be a serious crime problem).

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