Will regulation change the role of CCTV? (From Bournemouth Echo)

Will regulation change the role of CCTV?

7:00pm Thursday 27th May 2010 in

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BIG Brother has been watching us in Bournemouth for almost three decades.

But new legislation to regulate the use of CCTV cameras, outlined in the Queen’s Speech earlier this week, could dictate local councils’ future street security plans.

Bournemouth town centre and seafront has 140 cameras. But at Castlepoint, the 41-acre out-of-town shopping park, a £500,000 security system includes 150 cameras. Neither of these figures include cameras installed in shops and other business premises.

Bournemouth was the first town in the UK to introduce the widespread use of CCTV cameras. Amid heightened security fears, they were switched on in time for the Tory party conference in 1985, a year after the Brighton bombing.

Cllr David Smith, cabinet member for the community, said he was “very concerned” about the prospect of more regulation of CCTV cameras.

He added: “They play a vital role in ensuring Bournemouth is a safer place to live, work and visit. Our CCTV system has been successfully used to gather evidence to arrest and convict criminals, including during two recent murder cases.

“At public meetings I have never had a single complaint about cameras. In fact I am always asked if we can install more.”

The cameras recently assisted in convicting three teenagers for manslaughter after the death last year of Big Issue vendor Ralph Millward.

There are 124 cameras across the Borough of Poole where CCTV has been involved in 2,012 incidents in the past year, ranging from antisocial behaviour to car crime, and assisted in more than 300 arrests. The estimated cost of the system for 2010/2011 is £266,517.

Borough operations manager Paul Spencer said: “The council operates CCTV round the clock, using it to monitor safety and security of both residents and visitors. We work closely with the police, retailers and licensed premises to deter crime.”

Few subjects spark a more lively debate but, whether you love them or hate them, the question is whether the ‘spy’ cameras are effective in cutting crime.

A Home Office study in 2005 found little evidence that CCTV reduces crime and not much evidence that it made the public safer either.

But Dorset police insist that CCTV cameras are playing a vital role in curbing crime, with Bournemouth town centre cameras helping to solve 277 crimes in one year alone.

Incriminating video footage, showing street assaults, sex attacks and public order offences, is regularly screened at Bournemouth Crown Court, and led to the perpetrators of those crimes being brought to justice.

But last year the House of Lords Constitution Committee concluded that the growth of CCTV was “undermining” the public’s “right to privacy.”

In a damning report the peers criticised the “incessant creep” of CCTV snooping and the recording of personal information by the government.

Regulation of CCTV cameras has been welcomed by Liberty. Director Shami Chakrabarti said: “After years of constant attacks on our freedoms, the new liberty language of the Queen’s Speech wil be music to many ears.”