Is David Davis right about us having too many CCTV cameras?

Question

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7451552.stm

David Davis says we have too many CCTV cameras. Do you agree?

Answer 1

Most of them are looking at the fences of business premises, car parks or supermarket shelves !!  Most of the images are wiped clean at the end of every month and there are a whole host of rules and regulations to ensure you can see if there are any pictues of you on them !!

The real problem is that there are not enough police to respond to CCTV images of crimes being committed and too many doo gooders who want the criminals to go free !!

Answer 2

Absolutely, currently they work out at about one for every fifteen people in the country (1/15), and heading for 1 in 10.  We are the most photographed people on the planet,  our images are captured hundreds of times a day on average, add to that  databases of our details being passed around by all kinds of departments and agencies, from DHSS to Tax, to Vehicle excise not to mention any clubcards or loyalty cards which anyone might hold.  We are under scrutiny 24/7 and with the proposed legislation for identity cards we would become more watched that anything which any oppressive dictatorship or even george orwell could dream up if we aren't already!

Someone said that freedom is an illusion, and in this country that is certainly true, only an idiot could imagine that we are not in grave danger of becoming "Tagged" as a matter of course with some kind of micro-chip, it is only because of a few people that we don't already have DNA databases and all it will take is a couple more attacks or so and the government will have all the reason it needs to at least put out the idea, and produce propoganda to sell it to Sun readers, - No offence intended to them, fear of islamic nutters blowing up anything, even abroad, is a powerful selling point.

Answer 3

no I don't believe that he is right , what are we afraid of what action have you done today that has caused you to worry tha its been caught on camera, is it may be that you where so drunk in public that you could not stand up , was it maybe that you had s*x in public , was it may be that you and your friends where 20 strong and terrorising a community, was it maybe that you where , mugging people for there phones on the way home from school, or was it you where afraid that some camera was pointed in your direction , and you wernt happy cause you got rights , grow up , if you don't want to pay taxes to put police on the streets ,  and those you do pay for are bogged down by civil liberties , and you cant be a witness by video link, this is the future, there should be more not less, I want one out side my house.

Answer 4

Yes he is correct. I believe the government use cameras to spy along with the whole big brother scandals and issues.

Answer 5

If he was right then surely the Conservative policy would be to have them removed and as shadow home secretary he would have been in the perfect position to ensure that such a policy was included in the Conservative manifesto.Will he be berating his own party on the subject if they come to power.Will the Conservatives repeal the 42 days bill in the same way as they have stated that they will repeal the hunting with dogs act.Soft on terrorists but tough on foxes.

Answer 6

No!

Answer 7

Too right I agree.

We are the most watched and catalogued nation on the planet. Whether it be your local supermarket, railway station, petrol station or the high street you can guarantee that there will be cctv watching your every move.

It's introduction as an aid "to fight crime and terrorism" has failed in both departments. The old line of  "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" has been done to death and, except for the most naive, people see it for what it really is - a "spy in the sky" and a revenue collecting system.

Legislation was introduced which allowed it's use against criminal activity. This legislation has been abused to include "criminal offences" such as litter dropping, wrong rubbish in the wrong bin, applying to send your child to a school outside your catchment area and having a cigarette on an open railway station platform. That is what I class as spying on the population.

Answer 8

Yes, basically I do agree.

CCTV has been overused in the UK and if the guesstimate of one camera for every 15 citizens is anywhere near accurate then the question of how much use they are must come in to play.  Apparently a police officer suggested that only 3% of crime is detected by using CCTV.  Like one of your contributors who was beaten up outside of camera range I also know of two other instances similar to that, and as to talking cameras telling people to pick up litter then really that is something parents should be teaching their children not a clerk employed by the local Council but hey ho in Britain we do not seem to have any civic pride.

Where CCTV is installed to reduce the speed of vehicles I find that they are ineffective.  Racers speed manically between cameras only to shove on their brakes for the camera which causes a wave in the traffic with the knock on effect of reducing the flow of traffic.  The system which works better is the one where traffic is photographed at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of a route ensuring an even flow of speed - except of course for the inevitable idiot who has plenty of money to pay the fines.

David Davis has been in Politics a long while and I am sure there was more to his resignation than meets the eye.  He was very keen to highlight the increase to a 42 day detention but his action has changed nothing and he is now no longer in the shadow cabinet where he could possibly have made a difference.

Answer 9

I disagree - There should be a code of practice for CCTV cameras both in what information they take and in the quality of the picture. Also clearly defined rules on what the police could use the information for.

I am a great supporter in the "if you are not doing anything wrong then you have nothing to worry about" philosophy.

This was bolstered after I got attacked in a town centre just out of sight of a camera - If we had more or better cameras then that scumbag would be behind bars now hopefully.