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Posts Tagged ‘CCTV’

CCTV failing in fight against crime

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

The document reveals that CCTV footage was used to solve less than one crime for every 1,000 cameras in London. Obtained from Scotland Yard using the Freedom of Information Act, the report recommends an overhaul of the way CCTV is handled across the UK. The criticisms in the study make uncomfortable reading for both senior police officers and politicians alike.

CCTV accounts for three quarters of the Home Office’s total spending on crime prevention, making it the single most heavily-funded crime prevention measure outside the criminal justice system. The way in which CCTV is managed was the area of most concern highlighted by the report. It found that it is often untrained, front-line officers who are responsible for downloading and viewing CCTV images in their hunt for evidence.

Read article: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20090824/tuk-cctv-boom-failing-in-fight-against-c-45dbed5.html

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UK government’s £400 million plan to put 24-hour CCTV supervision in homes

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Thousands of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday. The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction. Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far. But ministers want to target 20,000 more in the next two years, with each costing between £5,000 and £20,000 – a potential total bill of £400million.

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Ministers hope the move will reduce the number of youngsters who get drawn into crime because of their chaotic family lives, as portrayed in Channel 4 comedy drama Shameless. Sin bin projects operate in half of council areas already but Mr Balls wants every local authority to fund them. He said: “This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem. There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support.”

Read article: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/115736

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Camera grid to log number plates

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

A national network of cameras and computers automatically logging car number plates will be in place within months, the BBC has learned.

 

Thousands of Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras are already operating on Britain’s roads.

 

Police forces across England, Wales and Scotland will soon be able to share the information on one central computer.

 

Officers say it is a useful tool in fighting crime, but critics say the network is secretive and unregulated.

 

Kent’s Chief Constable, Michael Fuller, commented: “We’ve seen an increase of some 40% of arrests since we’ve been using this technology.

 

“I’m very confident that we’re using it properly and responsibly, and that innocent people have nothing to fear from the way we use it.”

 

A number of local councils are signing up their Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) systems to the ANPR network. As long as the cameras are technically good enough, they can be adapted to take the software.

 

In towns such as Bradford, Portsmouth and Luton that means greater coverage for the police and more journeys captured and recorded.

 

Read article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/whos_watching_you/8064333.stm

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State recruits an army of snoopers with police-style powers

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

 

A growing army of private security guards and town hall snoopers with sweeping police-style powers is being quietly established, the Daily Mail can reveal.

 

Under a Home Office-run scheme, people such as park wardens, dog wardens, car park attendants and shopping centre guards receive the powers if they undergo training, and pay a small fee to their local police force.

 

Their powers include issuing £60 fines for truancy and dropping litter, and being able to demand a person’s name and address on the street.

 

Under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme, the number of civilians wearing a special badge, and a uniform approved by the local chief constable, has rocketed by almost 30 per cent in a year and there are now 1,406.

 

Critics claim Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is quietly seeking to create a third-tier within the ‘policing family’, with even less training and accountability than the controversial Police Community Support Officers.

 

Read article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187568/State-recruits-army-private-snoopers-police-style-powers.html

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Who’s watching you?

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

A new three part series looks at why the UK has become one of the most watched places in the world – with millions of CCTV cameras, a growing network of number plate recognition cameras, one of the largest DNA databases in the world and government plans for the basic details of all our phone calls e-mails, and every internet site we visit to be logged and kept.

Read article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/whos_watching_you/default.stm

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Friday, May 1st, 2009

d-chipped-usa

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