Following the second reading of the Protection of Freedoms Bill in the House of Commons, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) is welcoming the positive comments made by many MPs in support of the crime-solving capabilities of surveillance systems.
Following the second reading of the Protection of Freedoms Bill in the House of Commons, the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) is welcoming the positive comments made by many MPs in support of the crime-solving capabilities of surveillance systems.
The bill, which ministers claim will protect millions of people in England and Wales "from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives", proposes that under the new law, the Home Secretary will be required to publish a code of conduct on using surveillance and surveillance cameras. In addition to this, a new surveillance camera commissioner will be appointed to monitor the operation of the code, reporting to Parliament once a year.
Debate over the bill went on well into the evening, with MPs from various political backgrounds commenting on how useful surveillance had been in cutting crime in their constituencies, adding that many local residents had in fact requested a greater surveillance coverage in their area.
"In the whole of my 32 years in this House, I have never had a single representation seeking the removal of surveillance monitors. Not one. The demand is there because it makes people feel safe," said Jack Straw, Former Home Secretary.
"Crime in Airdrie town center fell by 24 percent in the first two years after the introduction of open-street surveillance. It continues to be supported locally and is seen to be a great success in reducing crime and antisocial behavior," said Pamela Nash, Labor MP for Airdrie and Shotts.
This support comes soon after Shipley MP, Philip Davies, spoke out in support of the use of surveillance in a recent article written for the influential Conservative Home website.
In the article, Davies cited instances where surveillance evidence has helped secure convictions, adding that: “CCTV is not only an invaluable tool to the police, but also in courts. The footage provides a conclusive, unbiased account, void of someone's spin or recollection. It is difficult to argue with surveillance images and they often lead to changes of pleas from not guilty to guilty”.
"The crime-solving benefits of surveillance are well-publicized, as is its value as evidence in criminal proceedings. Surveillance increasingly plays its part in preventing crime when combined with detector technology such as video analytics or external detection devices.” “Alarm integration capabilities which are embedded in high-quality surveillance systems enable the handling of alarm triggers from unmanned sites and the subsequent transmission of video using flexible streaming techniques, an evolution from the early transmission systems which, many years ago, used the ISDN phone network, and today the IP backbone," said Pauline Norstrom, Chairman of the BSIA's CCTV Section.
Pauline Norstrom continues: "Surveillance has been a silent witness to crime, gathering indisputable evidence after a crime has been committed, saving the government millions as a result of guilty pleas, brokered after the criminal has been shown the video of himself committing the crime in question,” Norstrom said. “The BSIA-driven standard for the export of digital video for the purpose of evidence has gone a long way to ensure that proper procedures are followed when exporting video evidence, and critically, manufacturers have recognized the need to make this easy for the user in the context of authorized access. The reality of surveillance today is that it is increasingly a technology which is being used to support proactive intervention, so the damage and disruption caused by criminal activity can be dramatically curtailed."