It’s becoming a Question Time/call-in staple – No, not “Should the Spice Girls get back together?” but “Are we becoming a surveillance society?”
Despite the CCTV industry being in the centre of this debate there seems to have been relatively little discussion about it in the industry. I find this surprising because the sector is in danger of being caught in a public opinion backlash it could find damaging.
So far CCTV in the UK has had a great ride and there have been few detractors. But there is a perceptible anti-CCTV slant in the national media which is always eager to stir-up ‘big brother’ fears. It must be the only issue that unites both the Guardian and the Daily Mail readership.
Pro and anti-CCTV
There is now a battle going on nationally over whether or not CCTV is a good thing.
In the anti-CCTV corner we have the ‘talking camera’ controversy (a couple of incidents suddenly stir up a national debate over technology that’s been working efficiently for years). Also ruffling feathers is the news that police will have powers to track every car journey via ANPR cameras.
In the pro-CCTV corner we have the simple argument that it works. Images have helped convict in countless cases. What other country in the world would have been able to produce such identifiable ‘wanted’ images of the 21/7 attackers within such a short time, plus dramatic evidential footage of the bombing attempts actually taking place?
The same media that stirs up big brother fears is happy to splash these images all over their pages and screens, helping to convince the public of the value of CCTV.
Legitimate concern
But to keep this public goodwill the industry must try to distance itself from the creeping database culture that is now a legitimate concern in the UK.
With centralised databases planned for our medical records (only open to a few hundred thousand NHS employees, so no worries there), a national database of our children and the accumulation of our credit card details by retailers leaving us open to fraud.
Then there are the ID ‘interrogation centres’ being set up all over the country that we’ll have to visit to get our new passports (no doubt, in preparation for the national ID card scheme) and not forgetting roadside fingerprinting, fingerprinting infants and police access to thousands of ANPR cameras across the country.
Poor track record
All of us in the industry have a heightened awareness of the security threat and many of these initiatives will help tighten control. But at what cost to our privacy? Just how happy are you to trust your personal details and those of your children to a government with a poor track record for IT projects – a government responsible for an agency (the DVLA) that sold off driver records to a commercial company.
The most telling reason why the CCTV sector should distance itself from this database culture whenever possible can be seen from a You Gov/Telegraph survey. It’s plain to see that while the public believes CCTV makes them safer, it thinks databases make them more vulnerable. Most people do not trust this, or any other, government with their personal information.
Nothing to fear
You may say “Why should I worry if I’m not doing anything wrong?” This is a perfectly legitimate justification for CCTV and a phrase most people in the industry have used some time or other. But I don’t believe it can be used for national databases that compromise our privacy and leave us vulnerable to people who don’t have our best interests at heart.
The trouble is every time there’s another news story on creeping databases and government control what do we see splashed all over the media to illustrate it? Pictures of CCTV cameras, of course.
Green credentials
Installers competing for contracts may not have given much thought to proving how ‘green’ they are. But in these days of high profile “We’re saving the world” corporate policy, it may soon be an essential to get the bigger jobs.
Many of the top companies are now acutely aware of Corporate Social Responsibility and it cannot be long before most of the contractors for top jobs will have to show an equal awareness. This, of course, will have to filter down to sub-contracting and it could be only a short while until CSR becomes a big issue with even the smaller installers. So be CSR aware and be prepared to prove it. It will make commercial sense.
Red tape strikes again?
Carrying on the theme from my last newsletters about red tape being the bane of installers’ working lives, it was interesting to see that a 40 per cent increase in police funding over the last decade has failed to cut crime Could this be anything to do with the fact that despite the increase, one fifth of the force is tied up with paperwork at any one time?
Half of this form filling is not even incident related, we hear. This must frustrate police as much as it should anger the taxpayer who is paying more for their services.
Double whammy
The Italian CCTV company Cieffe has certainly made a name for itself in the UK over the past year or so. Winner of the Best Product award at IFSEC 2006, this year it completed a double whammy and won the Best of the Best for the second year running. So we were pleased to be the first magazine to get our hands on the new Nettuno MegaPX IP camera. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, check out our Bench Test.
All that jazz
The pace is also heating up for this year’s Security Excellence Awards. With its jazz theme, this year promises to be a great “fun” night out. It’s also a great opportunity for networking or entertaining your customers so why not book a table or individual places?