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Secret CCTV cameras in homes to spy on neighbours
Katharine Barney and Mark Blunden18.11.09
Hidden surveillance cameras are being installed in London homes for the first time to spy on neighbours.
The CCTV devices, fitted inside properties but trained on the streets, are permitted under anti-terrorist laws and are being used to gather evidence of anti-social behaviour.
The move by Croydon council has sparked new fears about invasion of privacy and Britain's “surveillance society”. But residents whose lives are being made a misery by yobs and low-level crime welcomed it.
Trials have been launched using two homes. If the pilot is successful more cameras, costing £1,000 each, could easily be fitted across the borough.
A Croydon spokeswoman confirmed that the cameras cannot be seen from the street and refused to say in which areas they had been installed. Residents taking part did not want their families or locations identified for fear of reprisals.
Civil liberties campaigners attacked the strategy. Charles Farrier, of No-CCTV, said: “There is no evidence they act as a deterrent and we should be concentrating on the root problem anyway and working to gel our communities. This is a step further in our Big Brother society.”
Simon Davies, spokesman for Privacy International, which describes itself as a “watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions”, said the move “makes a mockery of the Home Secretary who promised to rein in this law being used for minor offences”.
He added: “It shows we have become a Britain obsessed with CCTV. Unless the public are aware of where these cameras are, I believe this council should be taken to court for a breach of human rights.”
But some Croydon residents backed the idea. Kirenna Chin, 30, said: “Louts use my hedge as a bouncy castle and urinate in my front garden. It's very intimidating.
“It's a fantastic idea to fit hidden CCTV. If they offered me one I would definitely take it.”
Cashier Ann Hamblett, 61, added: “We've got yobs trying to put massive boulders behind our car, and throwing oil over my daughter's windscreen. It's making our lives miserable. The cameras are a good idea.” Once inside homes, the cameras are trained on the outside of the property.
Images can be viewed on a computer and accessed remotely and the evidence used to take people to court. The trials have been running for the past week.
Gavin Barwell, Croydon's cabinet member for community safety, said: “This is good news for residents. These CCTV kits give us another weapon to fight anti-social behaviour quickly. We'll be working together with the police to put them to best use.”
Croydon has one of London's most advanced CCTV networks. The control room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there are 77 fixed cameras, a rapid-response mobile unit, and three wireless units.
What the law says
Covert surveillance carried out under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of 2000 — which was introduced to cover anti-terrorist and all other forms of hidden monitoring — is usually targeted at particular individuals.
But the legislation also permits more general covert surveillance, under which hidden cameras can be used. This is defined in the Act as “directed surveillance”, and can be for reasons including “the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder”.
Directed surveillance is permitted for a “specific investigation or a specific operation” in which private information is likely to be obtained about a person, even if those affected have not been “specifically identified”.
Reader views (44)
Hello, reading this article mentioned above is a fantastic idea. Being a citizen of Croydon, I would be grateful to accept one of the camera where I lived at Cavendish Road in Croydon for security purposes.
(i) It has been reported to me recently by a neighbour to be vigilant as people came during the night around 8-11pm make as if they are repairing their car for hours and hours and also some other day, they just sat in the car for long hours, he assume they are observing the area. It was the same car, my neighbour mentioned.
(ii) And also since last 25/05/2009 till now, people pass in their vehicle and dump rubbish like 'broken coconut, vegetables' etc. in the entrance of a business building and corner of my house. On the coconut crust, there is like a small fire when they drop it, this represent a hazard especially in windy climate condition.
(iii) Other time, there are young adolescents of different ethnic, sitting on the stairs, in the deem at the back of a another building closer to us, drinking and making noise till late at night.
Thus, I believe that the camera is a good idea, as my house has been robbery twice during the past two years and another time I saw a person on the rooftop where I live.
- S.M, croydon, UK
Funny this - it was only a few weeks ago that the whole country rightly was disgusted about a woman and her disabled child being driven to suicide after being harrassed by neighbours from hell. 'Why didn't anyone do anything' everyone asked, including the media.
Now we have this cheap shot of a story. Perhaps these reporters and paranoid conspiracy police-state theorists commentators should try living next to a family of drunken, jobless, pitt bull owning, rowing, music blaring feral scumbags - and maybe a small spy camera would be the least of their worries.
- Mike C, Leigh-on-sea, Essex
Its the councillors who you have elected to the council who have voted in council meetings to have these cameras installed that are the problem. Ok,The council employees will have placed the proposal in front of the committee as work creation, but the decision is down to the councillors. If people started ringing their councillors complaining this would soon put a stop to it
- Ann Other, UK
Welcome to the Britain - the worlds biggest open prison!
- Derek, London
Sick Society. Having more cameras has not reduced crime. It will not be long in this country before we will all have one planted on our heads at birth.
- Mr S.Port, London
What about police? They can run after crims. These crims love the fame of appearing on YouTube. We have become what many said would become of us. Tragic.
- Oflife, Oxford
And exactly where are our police force at night ? Doing patrols ? On the beat ? Possibly arresting the yobs ?
-er, No. They are filling in forms and stuck behind monitor screens. Little wonder that afterdark, our streets are given over to crime.
- Andy Parks, London, UK
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety".
Benjamin Franklin…Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
- Andy G, Toronto Ontario
Great stuff. But only if the cameras are concentrated on the roads.
Lorries can't pull their hoods up, and we need an end to the lies and excuses from the murderous goods vehicle drivers systematically destroying the most educated, law-abiding and unaggressive of cyclists and pedestrians among us. That's right, the anti-social ones who jump lights and cycle on pavements are seldom amongst cyclist and pedestrian victims.
- Reg, London, inner city
Big Brother is always right. We love Big Brother. Long live Big Brother.
- John Frum, Bracknell
Meanwhile the budget for public transportation might be cut.
Wake up people!
- Trunk, US
Mark - I wouldn't exactly be happy, but I'd pay up. I don't think any such camera ought to be there unless the property's owner requests it, and I'd prefer if the law defined certain offences (such as parking) to be minor ones for which using CCTV evidence is unacceptably intrusive. But at the end of the day, being caught by a camera that's temporarily there for some other reason is like being caught by a parking warden. Don't break the parking rules if you don't want to risk a fine!
- Nigel, London
Finally it has arrived.It has been a very long wait for this well expected deliverance from the people that govern us. We should welcome this great idea with open arms where children and senior citizens will all feel safe when walking in their communities.
We will feel much safer in our beds at night, knowing that we will be watched at all times.
This great idea will bring communities closer together where they can all cummunicate and pass-on watchful information from person to person.
I sure most will welcome it as a reassurance.
fantastic news.
- Max, Wimbledon, London
First thought came into my mind is that. how far we going to allow government to breach our privacy in the name of security. what are the chances that yobs filmed by a private individual would appear first on you tube or as a court evidence.
- Syed, london
The best thing about this proposal is that a court order can be used against the property owner to force them to take a camera, which will of course mean that the vile little individual will know it is your house that provided evidence for his asbo - that’s probably all he will get.
So you provide the property, suffer the maintenance people tramping all over your clean carpets and flowers; pay the electricity used, yes its your electricity nobody else's, and you run the risk of reprisals. Win-Win from the local authority perspective.
- Jim, London
If the cameras are hidden they can not be a deterrent. What is required - as many have said - is more visible PCs on the beat.
- John David, London
I recently had my bike stolen from the local station: all caught on high-def, colour CCTV; but the thief defeated the perfectly placed, high-tech camera ... by pulling his hood up. I'm afraid that CCTV is of limited use, and no deterrent value at all if it can't even be seen inside a resident's home.
- Adam, London, UK
If there are lots of anti-social incidents in an area that police cannot stop, then I'm all up for this CCTV thingy.
- Dom, london
People like Reuben Camara whinge about unchecked criminal activity and then whinge about civil liberties once someone decides to do something to protect people. If we are to come down hard on crime, civil liberties will have to be curtailed, in the interests of the greater good. This is an inevitable consequence.
- Jonathan Murray, Warwickshire
I'm not surprised. It takes up to two years to get these yobs evicted, and you need an armful of evidence. hence the CCTV. I'd like to see it reduced to 7 days and their benefits taken away.
- Dhan Raj, Basildon
So if you're 'accidentally' filmed and then prosecuted for parking offences, incorrect bin use, etc. you won't mind? We already have the perfect crime prevention/mobile surveillance system, it's called a PC! How about we get a few of them out of cars and Police stations and onto the beat. If yobs are caught on tape we'll spend months trying to identify them and then weeks in court for them to get a caution, ASBO or innefective community order.
- Mark, London
There's a huge difference between a government using CCTV to spy on its citizens, and a private individual or company using CCTV to record evidence of criminal behaviour on its premises, or in a public space immediately outside.
It all depends on whether the people recorded have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and on what is done with the images recorded by the CCTV. One should not expect privacy on a street, one surely has an absolute right to it within one's home, and business premises are a tricky grey area inbetween the two.
In this case, if the council is lending the camera to a resident who is experiencing problems with criminal behaviour on the street outside their property, I don't see a problem, PROVIDED that all imagery which is NOT evidence of criminal behaviour is erased (rather than retained in some ghastly surveillance database).
- Nigel, London
This isn't new. Police and councils have been using it for 3-4 years to tackle drug dealing and anti-social behaviour.
- Paul Lettan, Old St Pancras, London
POINTLESS. Fighting this kind of crime relies on the will to take action. You can produce a million hours of CCTV footage of yobs doing their thing, but if the Police and the courts lack the real will to do anything about it, then it will do no good at all. Accept to produce a load more You Tube footage.
- Barry, woking, surrey, UK
I'm with Charles of Kennington. They do that in my area too and I'd love to catch them at it.
- Anthony, Esher, Surrey
if you have NEVER been the victim of crime, you cannot possibly understand how vulnerable you feel. I for one, would love CCTV in my house, just so I can prove that what I have suspected for years about my neighbour across the road is true. Benefit scounger!
- Maya - London, London
I have a discrete but VISIBLE CCTV camera on the front of my house as a deterrent to burglars. It's infrared and lights up at night.
However, I would never allow Big Brother local council to access it for their hideous policies. It's for my use only and protection of my property.
- Simon, London
It makes perfect sense, Croydon's now the sort of place where you're likely to be murdered in your own driveway. At least this way the police stand a chance of identifying the perpetrators even though they'll never be able to prosecute them because the cameras violated their human rights.
- Bob, Cheam
The cameras are handy for catching people putting the wrong type of rubbish in the recycle bins.
- Mark H, London England
Haha well said Mark! If it wasn't actually true I'd be able to laugh.
In all seriousness though I strongly believe that having already seen the disgusting abuse of Council CCTV cameras being hi-jacked to enforce parking & bus lane fines, these new CCTV cameras will be used to spy on innocent people who put the wrong bag in the wrong wheelie bin or dare to take their children to the park without first being registered on a government database.
If only George Orwell could see how amazingly accurate his 1984 world would turn out to be.
- Anon Pc, London, UK
Ooh, can I have one?
I often wake in the morning to see rubbish dumped across the road.
What is it with people? Who suddenly decides to throw out a tv stand, kiddies pram or plant stand at 3 in the morning? My neighbours, apparantly.
- Charles, Kennington
re: Roderick Mackintosh, berlin germany.
UK MPs have been feeding us garbage about the Human Rights Act being required by EU. Are you telling us that Gernmany is free to ignore the HRA?
- Bj, East London
These cctv cameras should not be allowed, as a professional Mugger/House breaker/car thief, who is there to protect my Human Rights, to allow me to go about my business?
- Anon, Croydon
I think this is a great idea. Can I have one secreted in my hat with a live feed to the police station? I'd feel so much safer then. Just in case I'm attacked. You never know.
- Bloke, Lambeth
@ Brian, Hounslow, UK
If only there was some kind of alternative Brian. I look forward to the day when there is some kind of uniformed humanoid intelligence gathering machine that can patrol the streets on foot.
Baaaa.
- East, London
@ P Staker, London
100% right. Even if these cases make it to court the offenders will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist, they'll sneer all the way through court proceedings and then return to the properties with the cameras, only this time with real serious intent. We've already seen this year that the police won't help residents being victimised.
Wake up sheeple...we don't have much time before it's too late to stop this creeping surveillance.
- East, London
coppers on the cheap ? anything can be driven to extremes. the word extreme is the key thing here. The principle of being able to prosecute a snotfaced hoodie who otherwise has no fear of reprisal from the law (and we all know that this is true)with a hidden weapon would make me want one. But, and this IS the but: most situations can be engineered into abuse, regardless of righteous origins. If my house\property was being vandalised I would want to be able to do something, instead of having to endure the inevitable asbo\slapped wrist that offenders often end up with. however, my privacy is beyond price and I would react very badly to my neighbour having a camera fitted which could observe my comings and goings. Thankfully, I live in Germany and as such I am freely entitled to own a stun gun, tazer or cs gas. Very low burglary rate here, but as the saleswoman in the stun gun replied when my wife asked what the potential risk was to someone with a heart condition: "if you have a heart condition, you shouldn´t really be a burglar". wise words.
- Roderick Mackintosh, berlin germany
"Civil liberties campaigners attacked the strategy. Charles Farrier, of No-CCTV, said: “There is no evidence they act as a deterrent..."
Her is some news, they are not intended as a deterrent they are intend to gather evidence and protect the civil liberties of the VICTIMS. Sometimes I have serious worries about the perspective of these so called civil liberties campaigners.
- Brian, Hounslow, UK
If people who have the camers are worried about reprisals, have they not thought that if video evidence is used against someone, that it will be obvious which houses/flats had the cameras?
- P Staker, London
Charles Farrier should keep his nose out of it. I was recently woken at 3am by the fire brigade who were putting out a fire after my front door had been set alight by some yobs, my familty were all asleep upstairs at the time. CCTV may not deter these brainless yobs, but at least I would have their faces on camera so I could deal with them myself.
- Dc, London
This is a good idea if the cameras are sited for just a fixed period of time in order to gather evidence against particular offenders.
We all have civil liberties, and the most important is being able to live in your home without enduring anti-social behaviour.
There are some public housing area where elderly people are seen as 'fair game' by feral youngsters.
- John Jones, Westminster
No doubt this will provoke the usual hysterical reactions. But if a policeman had the time and resource to monitor a street to stop anti-social bheaviour 24/7, then why would anyone object? the fact that it is to be done by electronic means should not worry us providing there are effectvie controls and safeguards in place. If it's targeted at stopping crime (rather than say, to control lawful activies) then I would support it.
- Alan J, London
The cameras are handy for catching people putting the wrong type of rubbish in the recycle bins.
- Mark H, London England
Our civil liberties started to shrink when Labour were voted in by morons at the last election.
- Bob Hopeless, The Petrified New Forest.
The UK already has more CCTV cameras than any other country on the planet.
CCTV = Police State.
- Reuben Camara, Plot 1, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR
