Last semester, while discussing monitoring, policing and security of public space in my Exploring Public Space class, my professor dropped the little tidbit that London is the most watched city in the world. By watched, she meant that there are more security cameras on each Londoner than any other person on earth. While that freaked me out a little bit, I didn't think much of it. Upon my arrival, I noticed a lot of signs that read "CCTV is watching you" or "CCTV in operation for your safety and security." Even then, I didn't pay much heed to them.
My thought on the subject deepened when I was walking along Old River Lea, one of the back water canals of East London. It was a Thursday morning, around 10AM and I was photographing the graffiti by the river. Other than the occasional bicycler passing me by on the path, I was alone. About fifteen to twenty minutes into my walk, a motorboat with two "official looking" men came up the canal. They were sporting yellow vests and had some gadget of sorts. To me, it looked like a camera at the time.
Again, I didn't think much of it. (I need to do more thinking, more often!) I kept walking and taking pictures. Then I noticed that they kept pace with me and whenever I stopped, they did too. It struck me after the third or forth time this happened that they could be from the government. After all, with the number of CCTVs around, I'm sure everyone's activities are easily traceable. Here I was, a brown man walking along the canal taking pictures. In the current political climate, being brown itself is reason enough for suspicion. What if they thought I was planting a bomb in the canal? What if they thought I was trying to sabotage the Olympic stadium? My thoughts jumped to all different directions. Needless to say, I was a little freaked out.
Eventually, I walked to a ramp that connected to a walkway leading back to the regular streets. As I was leaving the path, I realized that these men were probably from the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA) or whatever body that manages the canal system. I saw them interacting with the other LVRPA employees by the walkway. Still, they did follow my movements until I left the canal. Still, there are cameras everywhere. Still, there was the possibility that they could have found me on CCTV and followed me...if they had wanted to.
My point isn't to further expose my over dramatic nature; many of you are familiar with it already. No, perhaps this incident was purely in my head. But that doesn't change the facts that I had mentioned in the last sentences of the previous paragraph. The cameras are everywhere. And a quick look at crime statistics in the United Kingdom shows that it does not experience significantly less crime than other parts of the world. It is, in fact, right up there with the United States. No, I won't cite the statistics because statistics are merely a form of malleable rhetoric; you can do a quick google search if you want to. Baseless security measures such as cameras, gates, and state organised policing have been proven ineffective against preventing crime. In 2003, Setha Low, a professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center-City University of New York (CUNY), clearly proved in her book Behind the Gates that there isn't significantly less crime in gated communities compared to non-gated communities.
However, those are quantative, numerical arguments. I asked my newfound friend, Hannah from Amsterdam, how safe she felt in London. She said she felt safe with the cameras. Then I asked her how safe she felt in London vis-a-vis Amsterdam. Then she said that she felt safer in Amsterdam even though there are far fewer cameras. Why? Because she knew the place. So on an individual level, it's the personal knowledge of the person that helps ensure safety; of course, this is just one of the ways.
We then have some things left to consider: Why all these cameras? Where do the feeds go to? Who watches them and why? What do they do with the information? I, obvsiouly, have my own conspiracy theory-like notions of why. I acknowledge that this account is incomplete in terms of delineating the history of British CCTV and reviewing notable controversies, but I digress. I'll leave you with one of Banksy's most famous works. Google Image "CCTV" and you get this image multiple times.
Photo Credit: Daily Mail, UK
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