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CCTV spy cameras will TALK in London
By Martin Bentham, London Lite Last updated at 11:17am on 04.04.07
Talking CCTV: Speakers will tick off anti-social yobs
London is to get CCTV cameras that tell off offenders in the street.
Drunks, vandals and litter louts will be chastised with a child's voice broadcast over loudspeakers.
The cameras will zero in on anti-social behaviour and an operator at a control centre will trigger the pre-recorded ticking off. And not only will the camera talk, it will listen. A help button will allow the public to alert the control centre to turn the lens to trouble elsewhere.
A scheme in Middlesbrough using the special cameras, picturedis said to have cut public order offences by 70 per cent.
But it was branded "absurd" by civil liberty campaigners today. Other critics said criminals will simply move on.
Tony Arbour of the Metropolitan Police Authority said: "We are accustomed to Big Brother seeing us, but now he will be speaking to us. It will certainly be alarming for people who are creating disorder. "I am cautious about their introduction, but they may reduce crime." Local authorities using the speaking cameras include Southwark, Barking, Dagenham, Reading, Thanet and Harlow.
Southwark council plans to install 13 cameras with "emergency help buttons" which will allow passers-by to speak directly to security guards monitoring the CCTV footage in case they need to alter the screen's position.
Southwark councillor Jeff Hook said: "Talking CCTV will help decrease fear of crime, reassure local residents, disrupt anti-social behaviour, and allow members of the public to communicate with staff in the control room."
But Doug Jewell, campaigns coordinator of Liberty, warned: "This latest hi-tech toy gives camera operators massive powers to invade the lives of ordinary people."
Competitions will be run to select the children's voices to be used in the pre-recorded messages.
Reader views (5)
Will the camera operators be able to hear anything that gets shouted back at them? And if so, will everything going on within microphone-range of the camera be recorded 24 hours per day, whether the operator is looking and talking to you or (most of the time) not? The latter is where big brother lurks. Next, a spy in every lamp-post?
- Nigel, London
As a resident of Southwark I have yet to see any of these "talking" cameras but wonder what, or how many, language(s) will the warnings be given in?!
- Mark, South-East London
This is just one further step down the road to the Orwellian nightmare many of us realise seems inevitable.
The most scrutinised nation on earth (in our so called "free" society) we will now receive remonstrance from a recorded childs voice. How patronising, and thoroughly ridiculous.
To those who will no doubt be clamouring to argue "if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to fear", consider this: This story does not reveal that lip reading technology is also being developed that will be able to pick up conversations, therefore eroding further any pretence we have at privacy. Before long these cameras will aso be equipped with directional microphones. Yes, your authorities are spying on you.
This is the thin end of the wedge and I for one am alarmed that there has been no debate or legislative process to put up any reasonable arguments against this.
- Jk, London, UK
Big Brother isn't just watching, now he's talking. Imagine what's next.
- R M, London, UK
Yes, I'm sure this will work swimmingly, after having watched a teenager in Fulham last night getting his pitbull to attack any pedestrians walking past that he seemingly took a dislike to. I'm sure that had a voice over a tannoy told him to cease and decist he would have immediately apologised an gone on his way.
- Trevor Roll, London
