To wish we had cctv on every single street int he whole of the U.K.

[LardLizard]

As every time there’s an incident the police ask people if they have any cctv footage or dash cam footage

If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear! Cctv can only protect us, no?

Fuck no
The police cannot be trusted

Nice. Let's hope your house is never burgaled or you nan with dementia goes missing, all those dodgy coppers couldn't give a shit clearly.

If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear! Cctv can only protect us, no?

Really? So anyone who doesn’t want to live in a society with 24/7 surveillance has something to hide?

Nice. Let's hope your house is never burgaled or you nan with dementia goes missing, all those dodgy coppers couldn't give a shit clearly.

And you think CCTV in every street will stop determined people from entering your home? Have you heard about the never ending security breaches over the past few years? In what way would this information be free from those issues or indeed abuse?

CCTV has a place but certainly not on every street in the country.

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, the most ridiculous non sequitur of all time. Police officers routinely abuse the powers they already have and you want to give them more? God help us all.

Most CCTV,and certainly domestic,,is shite anyway. Poor quality imagery, not suitable for evidence, wrong angle,taking pics of peoples heads. The most heavily monitored country in Europe if not the developed world.

In a perfect world, it would be good to have CCTV recording all the crimes that get committed. Except that in a perfect world, people wouldn't commit crimes.

So in OUR world, no, I would hate to have CCTV monitoring my every move. And no - it would be far too easy for anyone official with a grudge against outsiders to harass anyone who looked as if they came from abroad. Or anyone on a mission to trap benefit 'cheats' (because it would not be possible to catch the really big criminals, eg tax evaders doing anything bad on camera). Or paedophiles, stalkers, voyeurs - CCTV would be paradise for them ... So no.

Bring it on. I don't mind CCTV at all, just like I wouldn't mind a dna database.

If you can't imagine how that could go horribly wrong for you, despite doing 'nothing wrong', then study some history

circlesquarecirclesquare

At no point did I say I agree with CCTV on every street, I don't.

I just get sick of people slagging off the huge majority of amazing police officers, who put they're lives on the line every single day so you and yours can sleep at night citing vague and thinly veiled insults like 'The police cannot be trusted'

Like I said, easy to complain about them until you need them.

No way on earth would I want that. What if the government makes something innocuous like, I don't know, Facebook illegal? Or eating in the street? Or swearing?

Would you still think it was a good idea then? For the government to have access to every single moment that occurs in public? Ever?

1984 was not an instruction manual.

No way - too true re 1984.

Say a government decided that people legitimately protesting, r agitating against them should be tracked down and rounded up.
Like the photographing and identifying of the miners in the Thatcher years, The women at Greenham common and so on.
Where I lived there was one enthusiastic local policeman who had a 'patch' covering about 5 or 6 villages about 5 miles apart and he had a pushbike for transport. The other option for him was to get a bus (1 every other hour) or possibly get a lift from a neighboring area colleague. Fortunately crime in the area was pretty low.
CCTV is 'policing on the cheap' and is open to abuse. More, visible 'feet on the street' would be far better, but it costs.
There are places you can leave an open top sportscar with keys in the ignition and a wallet stuffed with banknotes on the seat and expect to find it untouched hours later.

Just micro chip everyone and be done with it

It doesn't matter whether you're doing nothing wrong or have nothing hide.

CCTV footage is fallible, DNA is fallible.

Incorrect convictions happen all the time. Don't try to increase that.

Living in London I know that I am being recorded about 14 hours every week day. It doesn't thrill me.
On the flip side when I was mugged at gun point a few years ago, turns out the neighbourhood isn't covered by CCTV. Joy!
I appreciate why it's in place and am not normally bothered by it. But thinking about it, I am not keen

BasilFaulty, there's also many Police Offers who aren't amazing. This week has seen two in Court for assault and racial abuse (he also threatened the victim with police harassment).

There was one the other month who murdered his Wife, one was a drug dealer etc. One who used personal information to blackmail victims for sex.

Then there are the mass cover ups. I've seen Police escalate a situation. People have reason not to trust the police.

OP, in theory, i think it would be a good idea. i just wonder how long the DWP would want in on it.

I think it's best kept to main areas. CCTV has just helped jail a scumbag murderer for a minimum of 28 years. It showed how he didn't care about what he had done. I feel safer with it. But in small side streets etc, it won't add any greater protection.

I am all for CCTV and Identity Cards, and DNA database sounds good to me too.
Yes, I have read 1984.

YABVU - not, particularly, for wanting CCTV on public streets, but for not understanding what it could lead to.

How happy would you be for facial recognition to become the norm, commercially as well as for policing? For you, or your family or friends to be profiled, not occasionally, but constantly, based on software potentially built with a racial bias, or location bias, or gender bias, etc? And for that information to be used to make decisions about you without a 'right of reply'?

As a PP mentioned up-thread - visible police, who work well within the communities they serve, are far more effective for prevention. Passive surveillance of the type you espouse doesn't prevent crime, just helps in some cases to apply punishment.

Maybe have a read of some of the articles in the Economist to see where the 'but I've nothing to hide...' mentality can lead (particularly the v.disturbing article about treatment of the Uighurs).

CCTV is only useful if it’s good quality, too much is poor quality.
I’d like cameras with ANPR on every set of traffic lights in the country to stop drivers going through on red as they’d be fined and get points every time.

DNA database is a step too far imo.

Ok, if you've committed a crime, but to suggest all babies get their DNA taken is ridiculous

Why not just make sure we have a decent police force instead of being lazy and relying on cctv and operatives.

Why not try and keep crime rates down? It’s going up - any link to austerity? Maybe, not sure.

Cctv will not stop every crime. Criminals will commit crime - they’ll just cover up and will find a way to hide.

There no need for us to be completely monitored and for all of our dna to be collected. It’s not a fool proof cast iron protection against crime.

Might as well tag us at birth like they do with dogs.....

Yeah, you need to read 1984 and then come back to us.