The land with 4.2m spy-cams

Surveillance gear will usher in crime-free society, writer claims

SMILE. YOU’RE ON candid camera. And this is probably not a joke. There are A LOT of cameras around these days, as the not-so-slick assassins who killed a Palestinian leader found out last week.

Surveillance technology will eventually create crime-free societies, says Ali Hasan Cemendtaur, a Pakistan-born writer. “After the incident of a crime, we play back the cameras, and interpret the barcode-reader archive, to see what really happened. There is no getting away with crime in that society,” he says. But he warns that the system would only work in a fully democratic, multi-party community. So scratch most places in Asia off that list.

I was peddling this theory in the bar when a Londoner pointed out that Mr Cemendtaur’s imagined camera-dominated society already exists. There are now more than 4.2 million surveillance cameras in the UK. “A guy can no longer scratch himself in London because there are an average of three high definition cameras looking at you, one doing a medium-close up, one focused on your scratching finger and the other on your trousers,” he said. It’s highly inconvenient. Every time he wants to scratch himself, he has to take the Eurostar train to Paris.

Yet more than 97 per cent of crimes solved in the UK are unraveled by old-fashioned police work rather than cameras, he said. A study by the Liberal Democrats concluded: "Police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.”

Here’s a case which shows why. An armed raider recently turned up at a bank in Kirchheim, Austria, ready to rob it. But it was early closing day. Staff were inside having a training session. Furious, he banged on the locked doors with his gun, before realizing that this was a really stupid thing to do. He fled. The video surveillance caught an image of him, but he was wearing a full-face mask, so all they got was a picture of a Barack Obama mask. The really funny part of the story is that the burglar actually WAS Barack Obama, trying to solve the US debt crisis. That’s my theory, anyway.

I remained undecided about whether technology could create a crime-free society until I got an email from a reader in the US. He said that while cameras were not as helpful as hoped, other forms of technology DID work. He told me about a guy in Milwaukee whose mobile phone was stolen recently. The victim simply went to the nearest computer and asked the phone to tell him where it was. It did. It even sent a photo of the thief’s home. He gave the information to police. Officers went to the address in the town of Oak Creek. Police Chief Tom Bauer arrested a man who confessed to six thefts.

Of course, this phone application, called MobileMe, can be used for non-crimes as well. You can contact your spouse’s phone by computer. “Hello phone, please tell me where my husband is and send me a photo, too, showing his exact location.” Click. I foresee a rise in another sort of crime: battered husbands.

Tomorrow: suicide bombers who blow up only themselves.

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Technorati Tags: ali hasan cermendtaur,obama mask,kirchheim,dumb criminal,surveilliance cameras,UK,Mobileme

Comments

[Foxlore]

If artists in Japan have any influence, then in the future our phones will look like little dolls and will not only tell on us, but they will expect to be praised for the jobs they do (e.g.
Chobits )

You may laugh...but 45 years ago, nobody thought the communicators in Star Trek would be real either.... ;-)

[Karuna]

Since, surveillance cameras are very expensive, large public venues especially museums, buy only casing without the electronics. These camera casings are then fixed all over the place, to fool any bugler to think that the place is protected.

[Nile]

it seems that in future privacy would be a thing of past. the application mobileme sounds totally cool, non-tech-savvy thiefs should be really really careful.

I have spotted quite a few cameras in Dhaka. I think they are using Karuna's idea because most of the times there is no electricity during summer.

I dont think surveillance cameras would create a crime-free society. mankind is so innovative that they would find out something to fool the new technology at speed of deployment of that technology.

[snapper]

EVERY land these days has 4.2 million spy cams at least. That's because ever country has millions of phone carriers and they almost all have cameras these days. The presence of phones every where i suspect is one of the things that is driving down crime as suggested in yesterdays posting.

[fardel]

I agree with snapper
It stops the Police from overdoing it , as well;
.....and Presidents from insulting the little guy ( our presidnt was caught on camera telling a bystander in a crowd ;F....k off, Ass.....le")
But as it proved in the Washington sniper rampage, the billion cameras did not help a bit,no more than the few thousands of special agents, satellites running after him.

If he did not ask for money, he would still be running
smart cats , smart rats....

[Harry]

I was amazed to learn of the incredible popularity of Chinese television in the UK. I keep reading in UK publications and seeing on the BBC stories about the huge coverage of CCTV in Britain.
I have occasionally watched CCTV 9 in Asia but I never thought that it would catch on to such an extent in the UK.

[Sarah]

The many security cameras in England began as an experiment in Hexham (a small town in Northern England whose inhabitants take inordinate pleasure in pounding on each other.)
A former resident of the town told me this example - a gent was standing on a corner trying to light his cigarette. Someone else, noting he was absorbed in this activity, ran up and punched him hard, stunning him insensible on the pavement. This person ran away. The smoker then was helped up by some of England's finest and asked who hit him (they had it on tape, remember.) He insisted that he had walked into a pole.
I don't know any more, but knowing this much makes me wonder why they decided the expensive cameras were a good idea.

[sej]

There was a story recently in Darwin of a guy who tried to burn down a government building.

The story went, initially at least, the cameras outside meant to be pointed at the building, were in fact being used to spy on school girls across the road.

I somehow doubt this is true, but I think where the story came from, is what appears to be a true story of cameras in a police station in another part of Darwin in fact being used to inappropriate spy on women, specifically their posteriors.

[Christy]

There was a similar story in China too. Surveillance cameras were inappropriately used to spy on people in a nearby residential building. Couples havnig sex and women changing clothes were captured on film...and any pervert who wanted his "fix" coupld apparently pay the officials and get a look...

[Chamin]

There is this land with about 4.2 million people, and probably 40 million cameras. As expected, the (usually active) reader from there have not left a single comment :-p

[Angela]

hahahha!!!

Ok you got me!

Actually I have some really sordid tales of romantic dalliances inside the server room (I am not involved) caught on cctv.

BTW, I work for a company that is owned by another company (largest in this tiny island) that installs and monitors CCTV ;-)

We are a wealth of sordid tales..

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One day at my desk I was feeling a bit itchy under my shirt so I tried to discreetly scratch but it is really difficult to be discreet when you are scratching this upper part of your limb. Then I looked up and there's a camera staring right at me. The guys at the monitoring room probably had a good laugh.

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my friend just started to work as IT support staff for this big European Bank and she tells me that due to the open layout of the office area, she sometimes walks around the maze of cubicles for about 15 minutes just to find her client.

She had a feeling that is why the security guys manning the cctv smiles when they see her. "That's the girl who got lost for 15 minutes searching for H15"
It's like a rat in a maze.

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it is also very popular thing here to have spy cam installed in your house to monitor how the maid is treating your children or elderly/disabled parents at home.