182 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
182 lines
7.0 KiB
Plaintext
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Orwell's 1984. Glasgow's 1994?
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Closed Circuit Television in Glasgow
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What is it?
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By the end of this summer four square miles of the city centre
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will be under constant 24 hour surveillance. An area from
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Glasgow Cross to Charing Cross will be dotted with 32 cameras.
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These will produce over 5000 hours of footage each week of
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Glaswegians going about their everyday lives. The cameras will
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be monitored by specially trained disabled civilians from a
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bank of screens at Steward Street Police Station.
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What will it cost?
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The estimated cost of the project for installation and the
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first three years of running costs is 1 million pounds.
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Who is funding it?
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Half of the money is coming from private businesses in the
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city centre through voluntary donations. The rest is coming
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from the public sector - Strathclyde Regional Council and
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Glasgow District Council.
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What is it for?
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"The Cameras have been installed to protect valuable
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businesses"
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Glasgow Chief SuperIntendent Gordon Carmicheal.
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Daily Record 14/1/94
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"The Cameras are not there to spy on people but to protect
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people"
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Strathclyde Regional Councillor James Jennings
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Scotsman 16/7/93
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"The Cameras do not just make sense. It makes business sense."
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Caroline Durkan Glasgow Development Agency (GDA).
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Herald 9/12/93
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Although there is confusion whether the cameras are to protect
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property or people, the main stated aim of the project is to
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deter crime in the city centre and to make it "a safer place
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for shoppers and shop owners, families, women and other law
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abiding citizens" Strathclyde Chief Constable Leslie Sharp
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Herald 22/10/93
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It will also be used to deter soliciting and to film kerb
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crawlers (Glaswegian 19/8/93).
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It is clear that the police have complete power to use and
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abuse the technology as they wish. The films could be used for
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any purpose whatsoever, from filming public leafleting to
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filming people on marches and demonstrations. Once the
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technology is in place it can be used for whatever the police
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want.
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How long will video footage be kept?
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According to Caroline Durkan of the Glasgow Development
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Agency, "footage will be retained for one month then wiped
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unless required for evidence of information" Herald 9/12/93
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This is obviously vague and open to interpretation and abuse
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by the police.
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Who will have access to and control of video footage?
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"Recorded tapes will be the property of the chief constable
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and will be used only be Strathclyde Police to deter and
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detect criminals"
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Caroline Durkan (GDA) Herald 9/12/93
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The above statement was enough to convince doubting
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Strathclyde Regional Councillors that the video cameras would
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not be an abuse of civil liberties. Such unlimited powers
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should obviously because for concern, not confidence, in the
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system. A U.S. Lawyer quoted in the Scotsman 31/8/93 states
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"the person who controls the technology controls the use made
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of it"
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Background
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Since the mid 1980's there has been a rapid growth in English
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towns and cities installing closed circuit television systems.
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In 1986 Bournemouth installed video cameras along its seafront
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and claimed that in its first year of use the bill for
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vandalism dropped from 220 000 to 36 000 pounds (Scotsman
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31/8/93).
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Newcastle installed a 400 000 system and claimed there was a
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13% reduction in crime in the first two months of operation
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(Guardian 13/5/93).
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Hexham installed a video system and claimed there was a
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"significant reduction in crime by 97% in areas covered by
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cameras (Scotsman 30/11/93).
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Kings Lynn in the Midlands (of England) installed cameras and
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claimed that thefts from cars dropped by 97% and car crimes in
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general by 91% (Guardian 31/8/93).
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These statistics appear impressive and have led to many
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Scottish towns installing or planning to install camera
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systems. The most publicised case is Airdrie where it is
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claimed crime fell by 75% in its first six months of operation
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(Scotsman 31/8/93).
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Other Scottish towns such as East Kilbride, Bathgate and
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Kirkcaldy have installed cameras and more schemes are being
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planned from Dumfries to Inverness. It is against this
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backdrop of a growing "camera culture" that Glasgow is
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planning the biggest, most sophisticated and most expensive
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system yet to be put into operation in any "British" town or
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city.
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The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) say there are
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around 200 000 closed circuit television systems in the
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country and that the BSIA firms that supplied them did
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business worth 57 million in 1992 (Guardian, 13/5/93). It is
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now Big Business protecting Big Business in "Britain". It is
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hardly surprising so much effort is being put into convincing
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us video cameras are a cure all for crime. But are they
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really?
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Arguments for and against Closed Circuit Television
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Deterrent
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The major argument used in favour of the cameras is that they
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deter crime. They may deter certain categories of crime but
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they do not deter neither the drunken nor the determined
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"criminal". The person who commits a crime when drunk is
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likely to do it anyway. A person determined to commit a crime
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will just go to greater lengths to avoid being caught. Carole
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Euart, from the Scottish Council of Civil Liberties (SCCL),
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stated "people have been watched by cameras for many years in
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banks and building societies, but armed robberies haven't
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declined. This proves cameras are not necessarily a deterrent
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- they won't change peoples fundamental behaviour" (Glaswegian
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13/1/94).
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Detection
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Another argument used is that even if people do commit a crime
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they are far more likely to be caught and therefore found
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"guilty" and "punished". This is probably true, although
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people determined to commit a crime are likely to adopt more
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sophisticated methods to hide their identity in an area they
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know is covered by cameras. However, unless every street in
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every town has a camera they are more likely to go to an area
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not covered by cameras.
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Displacement
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Figures show that crime does not simply disappear into thin
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air. Instead it reappears somewhere else. In Airdrie although
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crime fell in the town centre "the number of serious crimes
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for the division as a whole went up from 113 to 135" (Scotland
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on Sunday,12/12/93). In Hexham, although crime in the area
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covered by the cameras fell by 17% elsewhere in Hexham it rose
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by 12% (Scotsman,30/11/93). In the Herald (11/8/93) an editor
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of a Glasgow community newspaper asks
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"Is it acceptable to the business community and municipal
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mediocrities in George Square who have not built a house in 14
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years that as long as robbery and violence are confined to the
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schemes then all is well?"
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The main argument against cameras whatever the statistics show
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is that "people should not be observed by institutions of the
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state as they go about their everyday business (Carole Euart,
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SCCL, Glaswegian 13/1/94). This is the main objection that we
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as anarchists should put across to other people.
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