Big Brother style CCTV Cameras now showing at cinemas

Odeon cinemas across the country have installed CCTV cameras costing £30,000 in each screen to monitor the audience by the staff in the foyer.  There are nine cinemas in major cities quipped with CCTV cameras including Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester and London. The company plans to installed more cameras in the newly built cinemas.

As a reaction to this the human rights groups and cinema lovers have expressed concerns over this action as an invasion into the audience’s privacy. The civil liberties campaign group (Liberty) has called for the awareness amongst the audiences to carry out by Odeon.

This step will allow the movies lover to choose between a big brother environment and somewhere else.
Odeon say that the CCTV cameras are being installed to allow staff to monitor audience behavior and keep a check on crime and all the footage will be destroyed after 31 days. Only suspicious footage will be preserved for action as evidence.

A spokesperson for Odeon said: “Odeon is committed to providing the safest and most enjoyable experience possible for its guests and therefore install CCTV systems in-screen in cinemas where it is deemed necessary. The camera system and subsequent footage is solely for the safety and security of guests.”

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2448829/CCTV-Cameras-installed-in-cinemas.html

CCTV cameras installed in cabs for safety

Cab drivers in Crawley have been urged to install CCTV cameras following a spate of armed hold ups in the town.

Watch the exclusive viode report on BBC

Follow the link : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7523833.stm

CCTV Camera can facilitate retail industry to study customer interest.

Retailers need to enhance the use of CCTV cameras to deal with the shoplifters and protest themselves. Middleton-based ID Technology Group tells its customers that they can use the surveillance system to examine the footfall and customer interest.

 

The security and surveillance technology is being used progressively as a tool to examine staff and customer behavior. Movement sensors in some security cameras can pick up when shoppers are in certain area and activate multimedia displays, which market directly to the customer.

 

The company mainly installs CCTV cameras for surveillance along with the retail security tags, barriers and access control technology.

 

Managing director Andy Gillies (as quoted on http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk) feels that CCTV has other uses too. “Let’s say the tagging gates go off in store. We want to make sure that staff are firstly approaching that member of the public, but also that they are doing it in the right way and not putting their well-being into danger, It’s a positive thing — and a useful training tool, it’s not just for covert surveillance to catch people taking money out of the till.”

On the other hand clothing retailer Flannels, headquartered in Trafford Park, which has more than 10 shops across the country uses CCTV camera for security purposes and not to monitor footfall, sales or areas of customer interest. “We prefer to use human beings, we find them committed to the task and superior,” said managing director Neil Prosser.

Source: http://www.crainsmanchesterbusiness.co.uk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080721/FREE/929819828

Now CCTV cameras on fire engines

“It’s very sad that we have to go to such lengths to safeguard our firefighters”
As quoted on northamptonchron.co.uk by Northamptonshire County Council spokesman

A new £24,000 CCTV camera system has been introduced to fire engines across the county to protect against attacks on firefighters.

Northamptonshire County Council has funded the five-month long project to install CCTV cameras on the fire engines that will record evidence to be used in the court against the offenders. The system has been rolled out to fire engines at the stations in The Mounts, Daventry, Long Buckby, Moulton, Mereway, Kettering, Wellingborough and Rushden.

The CCTV cameras are installed to protect the firefighters from serious offenders and used against them in the court of law

This step has been taken by the county council after a gang of youths attached firefighters with stones and bricks while dealing with a fire at a derelict school in Kingsthorpe earlier this month.

Source: Northampton Chron & Echo

Read more here: http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/CCTV-on-fire-engines-to.4290381.jp

CCTV Camera installed at Elgol finds protest by locals

The local people of the fishing village of Elgol claim that the surveillance society of modern Britain’s cities and town has no place in their island which consists of a tranquil community.

The locals find this place a very beautiful and crimeless, also no social disorder and things like that. This is a place where the tourists stand and admire the views across the water, dolphins, whales and sharks. Children often play on the beach and the fishing boats are unloaded here.

Having a CCTV camera installed may have a negative impact on the tourists visiting this place is what the locals think. In a place like Elgol with a peaceful community the disputes are settled within and the CCTV camera poses as an unwanted interference to the people. It has been only couple of weeks that the CCTV camera has been installed have managed to find petitions signed by about 80 villagers.

More details here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4318951.ece