Talking pictures

There is, methinks, a little too much excitement about what talking CCTV cameras (more accurately, CCTV cameras with loudspeakers connected to a control centre, from which warnings and announcements can be given) might achieve in the Railway Village. For starters, it is just a demonstration of the technology tomorrow: the cameras are to be trialled in Penhill, not the Railway Village, and only if successful there will they be tried elsewhere. The council does have a mobile but silent CCTV camera (trialled in Park North) and is buying three more. That will not go far, even in the straight roads of the Railway Village. Even if talking CCTV was installed, it won’t have much effect on the anti-social behaviour many have in mind. CCTV is proven* to be effective for premeditated crime, not* for spur-of-the-moment violence. It may stop some of the drug dealing, but it’ll do little for the behaviour of drunks on the way home after a Friday night of binge drinking.

* Link is to a pdf document.