Privacy and Security Not Seeing the Crime for the Cameras?

I n TErMS OF sales, remote surveillance camera systems—commonly known as closed-circuit television (CCTV)—are a huge success story. Billons of dollars are spent on CCTV schemes by governments in developed countries each year, and sales to commercial companies and home users have been increasing, too. CCTV can be used for many purposes— ranging from monitoring traffic flows on highways, to allowing visitors in zoos to observe newborn animals during their first few days without disturbing them. The vast majority of CCTV purchases are made with the aim of improving safety and security. The London Underground was the first public transport operator to install cameras on station platforms, so train drivers could check doors were clear before closing them. CCTV has come a long way since then: last summer, the technology writer Cory Doctorow noticed that a single London bus now has 16 cameras on it (see Figure 1). The advance from analog to digital technology had a major impact on CCTV: cameras are much smaller and cheaper, video is often transmitted wirelessly, and recordings are stored on hard disks, rather than tapes. Integration with other digital technologies offers further possibilities: image processing makes it possible to recognize automobile license plates automatically and match them against databases to check if a vehicle has been reported as stolen, or is uninsured. Advances in hardware—such as high-definition cameras—and image processing—such as the ability to process face and iris information from images taken at a distance, not detecting unattended objects—will enable a wide range of possible technology solutions (imagine the whole industry salivating). The burgeoning sales figures and ubiquity of cameras suggest that surely CCTV technology must be effective. The U.K. government has invested heavily in CCTV over the past 15 years, making it the country with the highest CCTV camera-to-person ratio on earth (Greater London alone has one camera for every six citizens). A key driver for adoption was that local authorities seeking to combat crime could obtain government funds to purchase CCTV. In the public debate, this policy has been justified mainly with two arguments: “the public wants it,” and “surely it’s obvious that it works.” As evidence for the latter, policymakers often point to high-profile (and often highly emotionally charged) cases: In 1993, CCTV images from a shop ˲ ping mall camera showed police investigators that the murdered toddler James Bulger had been abducted by two teenagers, who were then apprehended and convicted. Images from London Transport ˲ privacy and Security not Seeing the Crime for the Cameras?