London now has 10,000 state-funded CCTV cameras. This figure doesn't include cameras for traffic control or cameras controlled by private companies such as London Transport. The cost of installing and maintaining these cameras is estimated at £200 million over the past 10 years. Unfortunately they don't do their intended job.Boroughs with more cameras do not have better crime detection rates:
[F]our out of five of the boroughs with the most cameras have a record of solving crime that is below average.Indeed according to Nacro, a UK criminal justice charity, the money would have been better spent of street lighting which has been shown to cut crime by up to 20 percent.
I feel that a large part of the problem is to do with abdication of personal responsibility. There is a chain of deferring obligation that extends from the individual through the police and criminal justice system that if antisocial behaviour is recorded somewhere it will all be sorted out somehow in the end.
Technology is only a tool, and any tool is only as useful as it is effectively used. I am not advocating marauding bands of vigilantes taking to the streets, but the censure of our community is a powerful regulating factor for most people. For that to happen an act must be consciously and actively observed. We are ceding the power of our collective observations to an unconscious technological solution and in the process eroding the bonds of our community.
The power of observing antisocial acts is that it reveals the truth of the senselessness of the act to the miscreant. The taboos of our society are still there but they need to be maintained or they will wither and die. We don't need every minute of our day observed by machines. We need some crucial moments actively observed by people. It is revealing that street lighting that allows people to see better is more effective than CCTV in reducing crime.
There is one small benefit to all this surveillance. A group of filmmakers have drafted a manifesto for using these cameras to make films. The footage is available through the Freedom of Information Act and with a little ingenuity a story can be constructed.
The first of these films Faceless is due for release this autumn in the UK, and you can watch the trailer here.
1 comment:
Love and light (street light) conquers - if not all - then at least some of the problem.
Recently, fearing a gang of 'hoodies' in a petrol station, I gained some comfort from a CCTV camera. On later reflection, I realised that if I had been attacked, I would have had a great DVD of my kicking (a momento to terrify myself and others) and the hoodies would have been long gone - vanishing back into the darkness.
Yes - only a change at the deepest level - inside our collective hearts, minds and psyches; not outside in the form of eerie surveillance - will sort things in any meaningful way.
I really hate CCTV and being watched in anticipation of things going horribly wrong. In terms of affirmation, goal-setting and the law of attraction it stinks.
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