Mass Surveillance A Worthy Price on Our Safety?
Mass surveillance has proven a controversial aspect of the modern world, especially as it continues to become more prevalent, with approximately 5.2 million CCTV cameras in operation within the UK alone.
For many the concept of surveillance evokes images of an Orwellian society, presided over by a totalitarian government or overbearing despot.
There is indeed some truth to these ideas: the UK police hold extensive fingerprint and DNA records, and, in London, the Oyster Card system can be used to track people’s movement through public transport systems.
One example of surveillance that has drawn particular concern is the use of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) across UK roads.
As early as 2005 it was reported we would soon see full coverage of a majority of roads, urban centres and London’s congestion zone by surveillance cameras using ANPR.
Now, twenty years later. this network reads about 50 million numberplates each day and allows the police to track vehicles, or, more specifically, numberplates, in close to real time.
In the face of this evidence, we cannot deny that in the modern world privacy is a diminishing concept, however we must consider whether this is truly a point of concern.
An important thing to remember is that our country is a liberal democracy.
As such, surveillance is not something that will be used to our detriment and has, instead, proven to be hugely beneficial to our society
We see this most in the field of law enforcement, where the importance of fingerprints and DNA in bringing a substantial number of criminals to justice cannot be understated.
Equally, ANPR has frequently been used to help apprehend and prosecute criminals, while also being shown to dramatically reduce crime rates wherever it is implemented.
Despite this, we must also consider historical abuses of ANPR against peaceful protesters.
For instance, in 2005, when a man, who had no criminal record, was pulled over by police in London and had his car searched under section 44 of the 2000 Terrorism Act.
After he made complaints about the incident it was found that his vehicle has been flagged by police after he attended a peaceful demonstration in Brighton.
This led to many people questioning if the police could be trusted to use ANPR responsibly and for its intended purpose.
Equally, Project Champion, which aimed to install 169 ANPR cameras in Birmingham during 2010, revealed further issues with the surveillance state.
The project would have cost a total of 3 million pounds and aimed to monitor all traffic entering and leaving the Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook areas, both neighbourhoods with a large Muslim population.
The project faced widespread criticism, with it being seen as a major infringement of privacy, that potentially breached the right to non-discrimination.
Moreover, there were further accusations made against the police for deliberately misleading council members about its nature.
This followed the revelation that the project was a counter-terrorism initiative, instead of, as many had been led to believe, an effort towards the prevention of crime and antisocial behaviour.
Eventually, in June 2010, the project was frozen and all the cameras that had been installed were removed.
In short, the debate surrounding the surveillance state is one that focuses on a simple question – do the benefits outweigh the risks?
Surveillance has led to huge advancements in the criminal justice system, allowing the police to more efficiently combat crime, ensuring public safety, while also helping to prevent the miscarriage of justice.
However, we must also consider if this is a worthy trade-off for our right to privacy, especially when we have seen the system be misused in the past.
In the end, the one thing we must ask ourselves is what is more important: our discretion or our security?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_United_Kingdom
https://www.secureredact.ai/articles/how-anpr-cameras-help-law-enforcement-in-uk
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/jun/11/project-champion-numberplate-recognition-birmingham
Picture: Free Photo | CCTV security technology with lock icon digital remix