IS THERE something sinister about this? Housing estate residents in East London are to benefit from a partnership deal that will enable them to receive high-speed digital services. The scheme will allow access to the internet, community information and education services, says Regeneration & Renewal (Jan 13). How nice. So far, so benign.
But then it all gets a bit Orwellian. Those behind the project hope it will also help to cut crime by allowing residents to watch CCTV footage of their estates from their sofas. If residents spot on their tellies anyone not fully signed up to the respect agenda, they will be able to call the cops.
It may sound a bit Big Brother — a charge denied by the project’s managers — but in fact it probably just reflects the current vogue for watching people doing stuff, exemplified by a certain reality TV show featuring a sitting MP and some other people.
There is no escaping the cameras. Police Review (Jan 13) says that they are to be fitted to Tasers — the “less-lethal” weapons that officers use to floor suspected baddies — so that the reasons for the Taser’s use can be justified. With police film of action-packed car chases already a big TV hit, how long before “Tasercam” gets a prime-time slot?
A report on the camera culture in The Times (Jan 12) could have consequences for parking attendants who may fear for their jobs thanks to meters that snap cars arriving in parking spaces and fine drivers if they stay too long. If fines are not paid by feeding money into the machine, it contacts the DVLA.
Advertisement
Two council workers have put their camera-operating skills to more nefarious use and have been jailed as a result, BBC News Online (Jan 13) reports. They trained a CCTV camera on a woman’s flat and showed images of her undressing on a plasma screen in their control room.
If you think that’s bad — and it is — spare a thought for the people of China, where the the notion of privacy has not traditionally been valued, says The Economist (Jan 14). Public lavatories are often open plan, and hospital treatments are carried out “in full view of milling crowds”. But change is afoot, and the right to be left alone is slowly being asserted. Leading the way are the Beijing university women who protested that cameras in the corridors of their dormitories are being used to spy on them as they visit the showers.
Has the counter-camera revolution begun?