Dale Mills
Closed-circuit video cameras in every bank, on every shopfront, and in every shopping mall and train station, all centrally linked, along with every local government and private business security camera, many with live feeds to police command. This is not science fiction or a left-wing paranoia; it is reality in New South Wales.
A Daily Telegraph "exclusive" on January 26 reported: "Banks, shops and any private business with a CCTV camera will be recruited into a state-wide digital spy network to counter terrorism, violent crime and rioting". Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of extra cameras will become part of a new security blanket over NSW — and you can be confident it will be used to also monitor minor crime, activists and protesters.
It is not yet known how many cameras will have a direrect feed to police command, but shopkeepers with cameras that do not will be required to keep copies of the video tapes for police inspection later.
The NSW Labor government's police minister, Carl Scully, told the Daily Telegraph he had the idea after returning from a meeting with the police anti-terrorism branch in London. There was no mention by Scully of any safeguards for civil liberties.
It is reasonable to assume that the police will use the cameras to track the movements of anyone the government or its security services don't like, and with digital facial recognition technology already tested at airports around the world, that would be easy.
The project is well underway — an audit of all CCTV cameras and their locations in NSW is already being carried out — so the fact that it was revealed publicly on a public holiday, and even then only in the form of an "interview" in one newspaper, indicates a deep cynicism within the NSW government about the public's right to know.
A database is being established to identify who owns each video camera and targets are being set for the organisation of live feeds and for minimum recording times. There will also be targets for the integration of the cameras with police command, including compatible software protocols and minimum standards for footage quality. All costs to shopkeepers and others of upgrading and connecting their cameras will be covered by the government.
Scully openly admits that the videos will be used to monitor petty crime. "It has clear implications for the prevention and detection of other crimes. It is vital that we know exactly where every camera is and have arrangements in place to use every piece of footage."
Other states and territories are sure to follow soon.
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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