Home secretary John Reid has announced that the "talking" CCTV camera scheme is to be extended in the latest drive against anti-social behaviour.
The cameras are already being used in Middlesborough and are to be rolled out to 20 other areas, funded by £500,000 worth of grants.
Reid denied allegations that the scheme was an invasion of privacy - or "Big Brother gone mad" - insisting it helped prevent vandalism and stop people dropping litter.
It was a way to "embarrass" the people committing anti-social behaviour without getting the police involved or taking them to court, he argued, helping to "make sure it is a better local society".
The scheme involves council workers directing the cameras, which are complete with loudspeakers, to crack down on people committing anti-social behaviour.
"This is a hugely popular scheme in Middlesbrough and the vast majority of the people here are right behind it," Reid told GMTV.
"It helps counter things like litter through drunk or disorderly behaviour, gangs congregating. They are the sorts of things that make people's lives a misery. Anything that tackles that is better."
Government efforts to create greater police presence and more neighbourhood policing would always be criticised as moves towards a "police society", Reid claimed.
But he said it was actually "a society where the vast majority of law-abiding citizens are doing their utmost to respect each other".
Although the scheme would help save police time, the home secretary insisted it was "not a substitute for having police on the beat".
He highlighted that there were now 14,000 more police officers and 11,000 community support officers and wardens on the street since Labour came to power in 1997.
The effectiveness of CCTV cameras in cutting crime has been brought into question by a Home Office report last year, yet there are an estimated 4.2 million in Britain.
And information commissioner Richard Thomas recently warned that Britain was in danger of becoming a "surveillance society".
1 comment:
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