Last night saw the debut of a new eight-part series on Five here in the UK – ‘CCTV Cities’. Hosted by investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre, it looked at the role of CCTV from the perspective of control room operators, in this first instance in Leeds.
This is how the production company, Steadfast Television, describes the programme:
“More and more British cities are using sophisticated CCTV systems to fight crime and keep the peace. This new action documentary series has been allowed unique access to CCTV control rooms to see how the operators and cops combine to catch criminals and videotape hooligans and drunks around the clock.
“This first episode goes behind the scenes in Leeds to see how the West Yorkshire police and local council cope with a city that is on the up – Leeds has an affluent shopping district, more bars and clubs than ever before and a growing student population, ensuring the life of a CCTV operator is never dull.”
While the use of surveillance footage in certain types of police or reality-based TV shows is nothing new, it is unusual to see a British programme that advocates so strongly for the positive use of public space CCTV, particularly at a time when the industry has faced heavy criticism for being part of the perceived ‘surveillance society’ – and has been linked with government data loss and threats to privacy.
Last night’s episode saw the operators track a market stall thief, teenage Bonfire Night hooligans, drunken Halloween revellers, a suicide attempt, potential domestic violence, and, interestingly, a case of potential overzealous bouncers. In this instance, one of the female control room operators, herself a former door supervisor, expressed dismay at the nightclub employees’ actions, while illustrating the use of evidential quality CCTV to assist police in their enquiries, whether prosecuting or dropping a case.
It’s certainly an interesting move for Five to air this – and at 10pm, in a relatively prominent timeslot. The next episode airs Monday July 14 at 10pm.
Did anyone else catch it? What did you think?
