Written by: SM Gibson at theantimedia.org
LONDON, UK — The citizens of the United Kingdom are possibly the most surveilled group of people in the history of the world. Forget the NSA’s ever-expanding reach over every form of communication imaginable. We’re talking cameras… everywhere. The City of London is equipped with thousands of them, so is Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and well, like I said before, pretty much everywhere. In a nation of 64 million residents, there is one CCTV camera for every 11 people in the UK.
The British Security Industry Authority (BSIA) estimates there are up to 5.9 million closed-circuit television cameras scattered throughout the UK, including 750,000 in “sensitive locations” such as schools, hospitals and care homes. This statistic was released in 2013 as well. Do you think they decided to halt the expansion of their Orwellian state at any point over the past two years? The safe bet is that these numbers have grown exponentially.
The truly remarkable and almost unfathomable piece of information regarding CCTV cameras in the United Kingdom is that no one really knows how many there are.
Simon Adcock, of the BSIA, said in 2013, “Because there is no single reliable source of data, no number can ever be held as truly accurate.“ So basically what Simon is saying is that there are so many of these damn things, we lost count a long time ago. It appears the BSIA has guesstimated a number for the purpose of appeasing the general population.
And now for the kicker… There are apparently not enough surveillance cameras to spy on the innocent citizens of the United Kingdom, according to Scotland Yard.
Sir Bernard Hogan Howe, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service, is now urging residents to put CCTV cameras in their homes and businesses. Because safety. It gets better though…
Sir Bernard is encouraging inhabitants to install cameras at eye level, because according to the Scotland Yard chief,
‘Facial recognition software has got better, and we can now apply it to images of burglaries, and then compare them with images we take when we arrest people.
‘What we need to be able to do is to be able to compare that photograph with the images we have of people committing a crime.
‘Taking the tops of their heads is not that helpful for facial recognition which relies on the eyes and the configuration of the area around the nose and the mouth. So we’re trying to get people to, ideally, add a camera at face level.
‘If anyone listening has a business, think about installing a new one – they’re relatively cheap. If you can’t buy one, could you think about moving it?
jhbfglnhgnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Please forgive the long string of indiscernible text above. My head crashed against the keyboard when I passed out in anger because of the egregious words I was being forced to type.
Sir Bernard wants to encroach on the privacy of the good people of the United Kingdom to such a prodigious level, that he is encouraging them to install video cameras with facial recognition capabilities inside of their most personal of spaces? Wow.
Does the government really need to peer in on our most intimate moments of isolation to keep us secure?
Have we really come to a point in our civilization, in a supposed ‘free society’ mind you, where we put facial recognition equipped cameras in our homes?
No thanks, Sir Bernard.
If you would like to read more on this topic, click here.
Anonymous recommends: Protect your PC & mobile devices from hackers and governments & surf and download anonymously
How am I suppose to read the article if your logo obscures the print?
The operative words here are ‘closed circuit’. This means that the images are confined to the locations in which the cameras are installed. I do not believe that the suggestion was meant to imply that there should be a feed to the police, in any case, the police do not have the manpower to monitor thousands of homes. Clearly, any footage available would only be used in the case of a crime when the perpetrators could be identified.
While i don’t approve of the idea of our governments watching us, the whole part of CCTV which is Closed Circuit Television, is the first two parts of that, Closed Circuit, as in the feed from that camera is a closed system and yours to choose where it goes and who in the end, sees it. I think it’s a little weird to have a cctv system in your home but i don’t see it as an inherently bad thing. and many businesses already have cctv systems in their shops anyway.
Nice article, one thing you seem to have over looked,the government / police / security forces shall not be putting cameras in our home… For one reason…. It would cost too much, instead they can spend half the, money on paying manufacturers to ensure all their device’s that come onto the market will have monitoring equipment in it, take Samsung t.v. For example. Unfortunately the public will willingly purchase the surveillance equipment for their entertainment…. These are sad times we live in….
http://realitieswatch.com/911-fact-pentagon-hit-cruise-missile-us-military-arsenal/
Hey, what a great idea, having CCTV everywhere in their homes so we could make of the UK the biggest TV show ever. Unfortunately, the UK doesn’t have the hottest girls in Europe 🙁
Sweeping statement right there.
I have to say, why have a dark background with dark print? If you want all to be able to read a slight alteration would be of great benefit, I believe. Thanks
First we need to get David Camoron out of his current position, we need a revolution, where we, the people, stand up to our governement and take down the tories, and the corrupt and expose all of the wrongdoings of such individuals and the parties, they represent, only then, when we crack the entire chest of secrets, no doubt said contents could fill an entire assembly hall, if not more, can we truly hope to put our own Government in power, better yet, split the UK and have our government in little collectives, where the people can take care of things, because honestly, something needs to be done, before it’s too late. You can agree, disagree, whatever, the fact remains, something needs to be done, otherwise, we can kiss the arse of our rights goodbye.
WTF? Im speechless
Seriously, don’t believe everything you read. This is the kind of article that loves to get people riled up about the most ridiculous notions.
They won’t even prosecute the peadophiles they already have full cases on. Why should they be allowed to spy on the rest of the country in the interest of our protection when they’re not prepared to protect us from the true animals in our society?
how about no
Your new TV will have the capacity anyway. So expect the brits to be under surveillance in two years. The Star court years are back in England.
Don’t be ridiculous please.
in going to live in a secluded space in the mountains can i put a cctv in my house how about fuck off