[Reader-list] the Act of leisure

[taha at sarai.net]

Some more food for thought...taha

A history of video surveillance in England


1913: surreptious photography of imprisoned suffragettes begins.

1949: publication of George Orwell's 1984, which is set in London.

1961: installtion of video surveillance system at a London Transport train
station.

1967: Photoscan (business) markets video surveillance systems to retail
outlets as a means of deterring and catching shoplifters.

1974: installation of video surveillance systems to monitor traffic on the
major arterial roads in and through London.


1975: installation of video surveillance system in four London Underground
train stations.

1975: use of video surveillance systems at soccer matches begins.

1984: installation of surveillance cameras at major rallying points for
public protest in central London. Picketers surveilled during miners'
strike.

August 1985: installation of street-based video surveillance system in
Bournemouth, a south coast seaside resort.

1987: use of video surveillance systems at parking garages owned by local
authorities begins.

1988: installation of video surveillance systems at "council estates" run
by local authorities.

1989: civil rights group Liberty publishes Who's watching you? video
surveillance in public places.

1992: installation of street-based video surveillance system in Newcastle
(a major northern city). The system in Newcastle is closed-circuit
television (CCTV) that uses microwaves (an open circuit) to link to the
city's main police station.

1992: use of speed cameras and red-light enforcement cameras on the
national road network begins.

August 1993: bombing of Bishopsgate in London by the IRA leads to the
construction of the "Ring of Steel" around the City (London financial
district). Measures include street-based surveillance cameras.

1994: central government (the Home Office) publishes CCTV: Looking Out for
You. Prime Minister John Major states: "I have no doubt we will hear some
protest about a threat to civil liberties. Well, I have no sympathy
whatsoever for so-called liberties of that kind." Between 1994 and 1997,
the Home Office spends a total of 38 million pounds of CCTV schemes.

July 1994: use of covert video surveillance systems at automatic teller
machines (ATMs) begins.

1996: government spending on CCTV accounts for more than three-quarters of
total crime prevention budget.

August 1996: all of England's major cities except Leeds have video
surveillance systems in their city centers.

10 May 1997: public demonstration against surveillance cameras in
Brighton, organized by South Downs Earth First!.

July 1997: London police announce installation of surveillance camera
system that automatically reads, recognizes and tracks automobiles by
their license plates.

October 1998: use of face recognition software in the London Borough of
Newham begins.


Contact the NY Surveillance Camera Players

By e-mail SCP at notbored.org

By snail mail: SCP c/o NOT BORED! POB 1115, Stuyvesant Station, New York
City 10009-9998


NY Surveillance Camera Players

NOT BORED!