Although we may live in a CCTV world, for those who are concerned about 'the surveillance society', there is no need to worry.
Visiting a remarkable company CCTV in Focus, based in Harlow, with Shadow Home Office Minister James Brokenshire last week, we learnt that around 90% of all CCTV systems in operation are not fit for purpose. This figure, if correct, is a national scandal. Most CCTV systems have the following flaws:
- They are not in the right place
- They do not always record what they should record
- The images are not of a standard that meets the requirements to identify subjects
- They do not comply with data protection legislation.
The harsh reality is that CCTV in the UK fails on a number of counts, particularly where it is placed by national and local government installations. The result is that the images they record are often of little use to the client, or to police as evidence. When one thinks of the huge amounts of taxpayer's money being spent on CCTV around the country, this is very worrying indeed. At the last count £350 million was spent by National Government alone on CCTV (2006 figures). But it is not just taxpayer's money going to waste. There are huge implications for law and order because the failure of CCTV equipment ensures that that many criminals are going unpunished because of the poor quality of the images - as defence lawyers convincingly, and routinely, argue that the person identified is not the individual accused of an offence.
CCTV Audit have developed a unique system for ensuring that CCTV systems are actually working properly, by using their own invention (recognised by the Home Office), called a ROTAKIN. Amazingly, whilst ROTAKIN is being used across the United States, in Britain, the company is finding it hard to convince the authorities and CCTV operators that there is a problem. Perhaps its time for local and national government to get its CCTV house in order before we start using CCTV for parking tickets.