Britain’s watchful eyes

What the Met envisions as “reassurance” looks a bit more like a book cover illustration for the latest re-print of Orwell’s 1984.

With some 4 million CCTV cameras Britain is considered one of the most (if not the most) surveilled societies on earth. Recently Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith institute undertook an experiment in observation to illustrate just how pervasive Britain’s CCTV camera’s can be. Via Christopher Hope:

Eamonn Butler, a director of the Adam Smith Institute, has just completed what he calls an “alternative Easter egg hunt for CCTV cameras” on the ancient Procession route from Westminster Abbey to Westminster Cathedral.

The Procession on Good Friday is part of Holy Week’s re-enactments of Jesus Christ’s last journey before he was crucified.

It is organised by Westminster Abbey, Methodist Central Hall and Westminster Cathedral and covers a 700 yard stretch along Victoria Street in central London.

Mr Butler, author of the Rotten State of Britain, walked the Procession this week and counted 155 CCTV cameras.

He tells me: “If I had better eyesight and a pair of binoculars, I could probably have spotted more. But with binoculars looking at CCTV cameras, I’d probably have been arrested.”

Note to alert readers: five years ago there were no CCTV cameras on Victoria Street.

That’s roughly one camera for every four and one half yards (4.1 meters.)

There’s some irony here. British citizens are expected to be photographed by authorities in virtually every public move they make, yet snapping a photo themselves could invite trouble with the law. Since February of this year, any person photographing police or military personnel in a fashion that is “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism,” could face up to ten years in prison. That’s a rather murky circumstance on which to base probable cause, isn’t it?

Image via BoingBoing.