Cameras in Newhill couldn’t pick out the dancing Morrismen. |
Satirist
Mark Thomas uses the law to sidestep the UK’s ubiquitous surveillance cameras
Brits may appear to
be paragons of discretion but actually we’re a nation of voyeurs and exhibitionists.
For the past 25 years, the government and citizens have been installing closed circuit
television cameras (CCTV) in the most banal places: train stations, buses, airports,
town centres and even telephone booths. We have hidden cameras in the changing rooms
of shops and parade before men in uniform with cameras tucked inside their police
helmets.
George Orwell’s homeland has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world:
one for every 55 people, according to a recent study by the University of Hull. In
1995 almost 80 percent of the Home Office’s crime prevention budget went into funding
new cameras. And the private sector now accounts for about 30 percent of the market,
worth £150 million ($210 million) a year according to conservative estimates,
and growing 15 to 20 percent annually.
In the words of former Home Secretary Michael Howard, “CCTV catches criminals, spots
crimes, identifies lawbreakers and helps convict the guilty,” yet there has never
been an official Home Office assessment of the cameras’ impact on crime rates. Only
weeks ago, it emerged that the Scottish Parliament has no information on the number
of convictions resulting from evidence gathered by CCTV. And yet, James Ditton, a
professor at the Scottish Centre for Criminology, reported in 1999 that the 32 cameras
in Glasgow city centre had produced just one arrest every 40 days.
Indeed the exponential growth of CCTV has been accompanied by rising crime rates
and falling numbers of police on the streets. Crime rates doubled between 1980 and
1990 and reached an all-time high last year at 5.22 million, with violent crimes
rising eight percent nationally. On any one night in London, a city of seven million
people, only 300 police officers are actually on patrol, according to the Police
Federation.
Sketches,
lies & videotape
So
let’s scratch the crime prevention argument and return to the original hypothesis:
an obsession with surveillance for social control–which seems only fitting given
that the British don’t have a legally enshrined right to privacy. But we do have
data protection legislation, first introduced in 1984 and reinforced in March 2000,
which gives citizens the right to see and correct personal information kept by anyone–government,
company or fellow citizen.
I work with Mark Thomas, who spends a lot of time in front of and behind cameras
for the TV programme, “The Mark Thomas Product.” So in the spirit of public service,
we have sought to uphold the new law. According to the guidelines, CCTV operators
must register their activities with the government, which is good news because just
about anyone can install a camera anywhere. Quite logically, we made our first stop
at a security industry exhibition. Of about 200 exhibitors, we discovered that 127
had failed to register and were therefore breaking the law. We invited them to the
exhibition’s cyber café to register online. Most declined and we were soon
ejected from the conference but not before the organizers had drafted a letter to
all exhibitors, notifying them of their legal obligations.
We then stumbled upon an interesting phrase in the act: “the same legally enforceable
information-handling standards as have previously applied to those processing personal
data on computer now cover CCTV.” Translation: any identifiable individual filmed
by a camera now has the right to obtain a copy of those images. This is a satirist’s
dream. If we are to be filmed half our lives, then we want the footage for a 40-year
long out-of-home video. Perhaps this is the real reason for the new law: why else
would it stipulate that operators put their contact information on each camera?
This took us to our next stop, Britain’s privatized and chaotic railways. We figured
that a lot of people were getting into trouble for being late to work. So we found
several harassed commuters eager to act as guinea pigs by standing under their local
station’s cameras holding a half-metre high clock. All it took was a quick letter
of request and each commuter received a personal video, courtesy of Railtrack, to
prove to their bosses that they weren’t the culprits–the company was.
The real surprise came while testing the latest CCTV hi-tech wizardry. Newham Council
in London has spent £2 million ($2.8 million) on computerized cameras to automatically
recognize certain vehicle number plates and identify known villains with facial mapping
software. We sent six traditional English folk dancers, donning garters and bells,
to do the “rattlebone” and “ploughjack” through the streets of the housing estate.
Shortly after our visit, we received a letter explaining that the council couldn’t
release our footage since “it has not been possible for us to extrapolate your images
from those of unknown third parties.”
Announcing
the world’s first international CCTV competition
We
had a major dilemma: had taxpayers’ money been used for faulty equipment, or was
something else going on? We happened to be outside a Ford Motor Company plant when
a few union people distributing leaflets about a forthcoming strike ballot were suddenly
threatened by employees. Ford complied with our request for the CCTV footage of the
incident. But aside from a riveting view of the nearby car park, there was no sign
of life. Another round of technical problems?
All of which leads us to the following conclusion: CCTV’s potential lies in the entertainment
field. As a result, we’ve launched a competition for the best footage obtained through
data protection laws. None other than Jonathan Ross, the BBC’s film critic, will
judge the results. And perhaps most importantly, I hereby formally announce the creation
of the new category, “Best International Picture.” Any CCTV footage will qualify,
edited or uncut, from countries with or without appropriate legislation. Please send
your tapes marked “CCTV Competition” to Vera Productions, 3rd Floor, 66-68 Margaret
Street, London, W1W 8SR, London, United Kingdom.
jack.cheshire@clara.net
Did you know…
The CCTV market in the United Kingdom is currently the biggest in Europe at over
$616 million per year, with 200,000 cameras in place. In 1999, 500 towns and cities
had public CCTV systems, up from 74 in 1996!
http://www.indexoncensorship.org
http://privacyinternational.org |
