Plastic bags to be put over Birmingham 'terror camera. 17 June 2010Last updated at 19:38 A surveillance operation in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations has been halted after it was revealed the move was linked to counter terrorism. Some out of 218 cameras, mainly in the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook districts, will be covered with bags. They were part of the Project Champion scheme, paid for from a Home Office counter terrorism fund. But officials behind the project said it would have deterred various crimes. Steve Jolly, one of those who first began campaigning about the cameras, said people had been "misled". He said: "Now the truth is out, there's a lot of anger. "Certain communities have been ring-fenced and saturated with cameras, making it impossible for you to get in or out without being tracked.
"What's happening here is the government is spying on its citizens covertly in some cases, without their knowledge or consent, and it's a gross invasion of privacy and civil liberties. " "The cameras are already in now. Police apologise for. ANGRY residents have demanded the removal of 218 controversial “Big Brother” surveillance cameras that were installed in mainly Muslim areas of Birmingham without consultation. The scheme sparked widespread public outrage and claims that the cameras were being used to spy on residents in Washwood Heath, Sparkbrook, Sparkhill and Moseley.
The cameras – installed in April – were put up by the Safer Birmingham Partnership after West Midlands Police received £3 million from an anti-terror fund controlled by the Association of Chief Police Officers. Campaigners received assurances last night from West Midlands Police that 72 covert cameras will also be switched off (like the overt cameras) and that there will be no future involvement of the counter-terrorism unit (CTU). Hundreds of residents, politicians and protesters crammed into the Bordesley Centre, in Stratford Road, to hear Assistant Chief Constable Sharon Rowe vow that West Midland Police would take total responsibility for the project.
Police back down over spy cameras - an amazing result in Birming. As we have discussed previously, there is quite rightly an ongoing furore in Birmingham over "Project Champion" – the network of spy cameras that has been installed there. 218 cameras ring a community, covering every route into a residential area, set up to automatically monitor those who enter and leave. A further 72 covert cameras are installed in the same area (a number which has grown significantly after Freedom of Information requests forced the authorities to come clean).
You will not be surprised to learn that the people who live in that community are mostly Muslim. In the form of Project Champion, hundreds of households are being singled out by the state for surveillance on the basis of (i) where they live and (ii) the god to whom they pray. This cannot be right – morally, or in law. The scheme has now been suspended pending a review. A number of local council representatives (of all parties) spoke. The newly appointed Assistant Chief Constable, Sharon Rowe, attended. A picture we've been waiting to see for a long time - Big Brothe. UK ANPR database. Police ANPR database contains 7.6 billion car locations and images, the NPIA have acknowledged in a FOIA disclosure to HMP Britain. The National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) operate the National ANPR Data Centre (NADC) which stores information from CCTV surveillance cameras. Each time a car passes one of these cameras, the location of the car, the time, an image of the car (and often, its occupants) and the numberplate is stored at the NADC.
This data comprises a ‘read’. There are now 7.6 billion of these reads in the Police database and they are routinely stored for 2 years. In an internal document [pdf] under the section entitled ‘Proposed Media Lines to Take’, the NPIA state: Q. Amusingly, the same documents details how each camera sucks up information on everyone and stores it on a database for two years. Related posts: Listening CCTV goes from pilot to reality in Coventry - Big Brot. As reported yesterday by the Sunday Times, a network of microphones connected to CCTV cameras that can monitor conversations and detect threatening language or screams has been deployed for the first time to monitor a city centre in Britain.
The powerful microphones are connected to CCTV cameras, which zoom in on potential troublespots identified by sound. They are enabling police to sweep streets in the centre of Coventry that have been plagued by drunken brawling. The system, called Sigard, has been successfully tested in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. No decision has been taken to install it permanently in those cities. Sigard, manufactured in Holland, is accurate up to 100 yards. It was designed by mimicking the hearing processes of the human ear. The system can filter out background noise. This latest extension of our surveillance state sets a very dangerous precedent. By Dylan Sharpe. Surveillance system monitors conversations.
The technology, called Sigard, monitors movements and speech to detect signs of threatening behaviour. Its designers claim the system can anticipate anti-social behaviour and violence by analysing the information picked up its sensors. They say alerts are then sent to police, nightclub bouncers or shop security staff, which allow them to nip trouble in the bud before arguments spiral into violence. The devices are designed to distinguish between distress calls, threatening behaviour and general shouting. The system, produced by Sound Intelligence, is being used in Dutch prisons, city centres and Amsterdam's Central Rail Station. Coventry City Council is funding a pilot project which has for six months and has installed seven devices in the nightlife area on the High Street. Dylan Sharpe, from Big Brother Watch, said: "There can be no justification for giving councils or the police the capability to listen in on private conversations.
A CV1 spokesman said: "We had the system for six months. Spy tech that ‘monitors conversations’ being launched in Europe: Missing 3-year-old boy discovered inside claw machine at Nebraska bowling alley A missing Nebraska boy was found playing with toys inside a claw machine at a… Distinctively tattooed neo-Nazi identified as suspect in knife attack outside CA bar Sheriff’s deputies arrested a neo-Nazi accused of attacking another man in California with a knife.… Hundreds of earthquakes rattle nerves in central Idaho Hundreds of low-level and medium-sized earthquakes have struck central Idaho since last month, puzzling geologists… Death toll climbs to 37 after Washington state mudslide The official death toll from a mudslide that buried a river valley neighborhood in the…
CCTV turning schools into 'prisons' As many as 85 per cent of teachers have reported the use of CCTV in their schools and one-in-10 admitted cameras were even trained on toilets. This comes despite claims in another report that the collection of CCTV images or other biometric information could contravene the Data Protection Act. Dr Michael McCahill, lecturer in criminology at Hull’s faculty of social sciences, said the unchecked use of surveillance risked creating mutual distrust between teachers and pupils. “The bottom line is that complex social problems will never be solved with technological fixes,” he said.
“Schools are full of children, not criminals. “The children we have talked to in this paper are treated as suspects on a regular basis and we have to ask what effect that is going to have on children’s relationships with adults.” As part of the study, published today in the journal Surveillance and Society, researchers interviewed staff and pupils at three schools in a northern city. Britain's surveillance schools. Rising number of CCTV cameras in schools. We will always give credit where credit is due on Big Brother Watch; so massive credit to Dr Emmeline Taylor from the University of Salford, who has conducted a fascinating survey into the number of schools installing CCTV systems. Dr Taylor surveyed 24 comprehensives in the north west of England and discovered that 23 had installed more than 20 cameras. As reported by the Daily Telegraph: Placed alongside Big Brother Watch's report from last December into council-controlled CCTV cameras – it is clear that the UK is witnessing a massive expansion in surveillance technology.
As Alex wrote last week when discussing the latest case of cameras being placed in school toilets: "Schools are immunising their pupils to surveillance. First they say the cameras aren’t switched on, then they say they’re only pointing at the sinks – pupils and parents get used to the presence of the technology and by the time the cameras are capturing intimate moments, nobody will complain. " By Dylan Sharpe. Action on rights for children. NYPD Developing CCTV Camera System That Will Be Better Than London’s. CCTVs to discipline the government servants.
Caught with your pants down? Schools, pubs and public toilets. More cases of this absurd intrusion into our privacy are constantly coming to light, with prying electronic eyes in (formerly) private places – toilets and changing rooms. From public houses to public toilets, leisure centres to supermarkets, even children’s school changing-rooms, CCTV has become inescapable and, even more shockingly, deemed acceptable.
Such ludicrous measures are defended by Local Education Authorities, councils and firms nationwide (no doubt because fighting against misuse of soap dispensers is a cause that justifies of capturing semi-naked pictures of the public). The Sun reports that time-keeping is one excuse in the Sutton branch of Tesco, Britain’s biggest private sector employer. The Sun article just mentions Sutton so BBW would love Tesco employees in other branches to get in touch with their experiences. CCTV in schools is increasingly common. Might feel the same way. By Lydia Ellis. Internet Eyes, CCTV Monitoring.
Internet Eyes (interneteyes) Jeepers, creepers, where'd ya get them peepers. Only last week Alex mentioned the terrifying emergence of hyper-snooping site Internet Eyes, a scandalous project whereby users monitor random cameras across the country and report back on any suspicious activity. If users successfully report a crime, they could be in for a cash reward of up to £1000. Hoorah, we think not. The devils had planned to charge businesses £20 per month to get us to monitor their CCTV; however, techradar.com are now reporting it is yet to go live because it's the subject of an investigation by the Information Commissioner's office (ICO), which believes it may be illegal.
The hideous project had aimed to sidestep the illegality of monitoring live CCTV by keeping users and camera locations anonymous but now the data protection watchdog has stepped in. Such a scheme explicitly opens the floodgates for the realisation of an omnipresent totalitarian state in which the implication of your fellow man is rewarded. Crimebuster CCTV site could be illegal. Snooping website site Internet Eyes has ambitious plans to charge businesses £20 a month in order to have their CCTV cameras monitored by site members, but it has yet to go live because it's the subject of an investigation by the Information Commissioner's office (ICO), which believes it may be illegal.
In December we reported on the site's plan to offer eagle-eyed members the chance to win £1,000 for spotting crimes on CCTV. Although viewing live CCTV feeds online is illegal, the site hoped to work around the ban by making the feeds unlabelled, as it would keeping anyone watching and reporting a crime anonymous. ICO voices concern Assistant Information Commissioner Jonathan Bamford has met with Internet Eyes as well as some of the businesses that had signed up for its observation services. He said: "The ICO is reviewing this response to assess whether the scheme complies with requirements of the Data Protection Act. " Everything remains on hold, apparently pending a decision by the ICO.
CCTV site Internet Eyes hopes to help catch criminals. 4 October 2010Last updated at 04:36 By Dhruti Shah BBC News People from across the EU can log in and check the CCTV cameras A website which pays the public to monitor live commercial CCTV footage online has been launched in Devon. Internet Eyes will pay up to £1,000 to subscribers who regularly report suspicious activity such as shoplifting. Managing director Tony Morgan said the scheme would reduce crime and help prevent other anti-social behaviour. But civil liberties campaigners say the idea is "distasteful" and encourages private citizens to spy on each other. The private company intends to stream live footage to subscribers' home computers from CCTV cameras installed in shops and other businesses. 'Deterrent' Mr Morgan said: "The subscribers will have access to four screens at the same time and if they see anything suspicious, they can press the 'alert' button.
He added: "The cameras are already there - we just link to them so people can watch them. Continue reading the main story. Snooping Camden CCTV car hypocrites. Our research into CCTV cars has shown that these machines have been used to squeeze cash from already put-upon motorists up and down the country. Hundreds of thousands of drivers have already had to hand over cash for "offences", no matter what the (lack of) common sense in the relevant situation. Given that motorists (unlike most groups of people given fines) tend to pay, and given that local councils promptly trouser that cash themselves, it's inevitable that we'll be seeing ever-more of these cars on our streets in the future.
Make no mistake – these cars not about road safety. They're about the thrill of power that petty bureaucrats get when they can turn the screw on you in a culture of "we caught you" – regardless of whether what you were doing was actually in any way a problem or dangerous. Constantly people complain that the very people doling out fines for parking and driving offences are appalling transgressors themselves. Couldn't be clearer really, could it!? By Alex Deane. CCTV cameras. A Paris, la police aura des yeux tout partout ? Article ? OWNI, Digital Journalism. Dans le cadre du programme de vidéosurveillance, la préfecture de police et la mairie de Paris annoncent un plan "1000 caméras". OWNI en dresse la carte. Mais en fait, il y en aura 10 fois plus. Pour l'instant. Mise à jour : Aidez-nous à améliorer la géolocalisation des caméras de surveillance de Paris !.
“Vidéosurveillance à Paris : c’est parti ! “. Mieux : non seulement la carte a été mise à jour, mais il vous suffit de cliquer sur les petits pictogrammes pour accéder au mode Google Street View, qui vous permettra de visualiser ce qui sera vidéosurveillé (vous pouvez même télécharger le fichier .kml des caméras géolocalisées si vous voulez vous en servir et l’exploiter autrement) : Lorsque l’on regarde l’emplacement des caméras, comme l’a fait le site Megalopolis, on constate que les arrondissements du centre-ville sont plus densément couverts que la périphérie parisienne. Doit-on en conclure que la préfecture ne s’intéresse qu’aux plus riches ? Caméras par arrondissement. University used Kafkaesque methods to deal with spying accusation - Woman who complained packed off to the loony bin. The War on Cameras.