Scotland spends £22,600 a day to run CCTV

Published on Tuesday 21 February 2012 01:01

SCOTTISH local authorities have spent more than £33 million running thousands of CCTV cameras across the country, new figures have revealed.

Edinburgh alone spent £6.2m between April 2007 and March 2011, the largest bill in Scotland and fourth highest across the whole of the UK.

The report also revealed that Fife and Aberdeen were among those local authorities with some of the highest numbers of CCTV cameras – Fife has 1,420 and Aberdeen has 942.

The figures were obtained by the campaign group Big Brother Watch through Freedom of Information requests. The group claims there is no evidence to suggest that having more cameras makes us safer or that they reduce crime rates.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Britain has an out-of-control surveillance culture that is doing little to improve public safety, but has made our cities the most watched in the world.

“Surveillance is an important tool, but it is not a substitute for policing. In too many cities across the country, every corner has a camera – but only a few ever see a police officer.

“Despite millions of cameras, Britain’s crime rate is not significantly lower than comparable countries that do not have such a vast surveillance state.

“There is no credible evidence that more cameras will reduce crime, yet councils have poured enough money into CCTV in just four years that would have put more than 4,000 extra police officers on the streets.”

Figures obtained by The Scotsman in December revealed that £8.2m had been spent on staffing and maintaining Scotland’s network of CCTV cameras in 2010-11 alone, an increase of almost £100,000 on the previous year.

Scotland spends less proportionately on CCTV than the UK as a whole, which ran up a bill of £515m over the four years.

There were 6,414 cameras in operation north of the Border over those four years, according to Big Brother Watch, compared to 51,660 across the whole of the UK. The size of the network in Scotland has soared since 2003, when there were 1,269 cameras.

This has led critics to describe Scotland as one of the world’s CCTV capitals.

However, police insist that closed circuit television is vital to their work and balanced against civil liberty concerns. ACC Ruaraidh Nicolson, chairman of the National CCTV Strategic Group, at the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos), said: “The importance of CCTV as a tool in modern policing is paramount.

“There are many benefits, but there are also many challenges and we are fully aware of the perceived threats to privacy and civil liberties.

“Acpos is committed to working with partners across Scotland to ensure the balance is maintained and we will continue to consider the views of as wide a range of people as possible as the use of CCTV continues to develop.”

Some local authorities, including Glasgow, were unable to provide a figure for how much money is spent on CCTV, while others such as Aberdeenshire, do not own cameras but instead make a contribution to other agencies in their area that do.

The City of Edinburgh Council said the £6.2m it had spent on CCTV had yielded positive results.

A spokeswoman said: “Our high-quality CCTV network deters crime and helps the police bring criminals to justice.

“It is just one element of our highly successful strategy to reduce anti-social behaviour and recent figures show a drop in crime of 21 per cent, with complaints to community safety teams falling by 22 per cent.”

A Cosla spokesman added: “The use of CCTV cameras is rightly an operational matter for individual councils. [It is] entirely up to them, based on local needs.”

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day20

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:49 PM

Have commented on this article at the Scotsman's other page titled Against: ‘We need clear boundaries’ 21 February 2012. The link may still be above. Also acknowledge the reporting and columns given in the Glasgow Herald to this topic today.

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11

KINGFISHER1

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 04:42 PM

6,7,8, and 9, however did you manage to post these items? 1,2 3 and 4. The word I use is Geheimpolitzei. It is technical,but I presume that it will be in a German Dictionary, or an internet translator will translate. RESERVED AND REDACTED TEXT AT FORMAL I have posted on this already RELATED ARTICLES AT FORMAL

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10

Lachie Mhor

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 03:43 PM

There is an issue in relation to who actually controls and audits CCTV systems. In Glasgow CCTV has spread throughout the city and the Council have extablished a quasi police force which the refer to as Community Safety. They are equippedwith vans fitted with telescopic CTV cameras and they can regularly be seen inthe West End parked up at a police station while the operators are in having arest from their arduous days work. The need for this so called community safety unit has never been explained. Does it indicate that Strathclyde Police are incapable of policing the streets of Glasgow or is this another fiefdom established by the overpaid bureaucrats who now staff Glasgow Council. The accountablity of this organization is non existent. What hey contribute to providng a safe environment in the City has never been published. Time for an enqury.

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International Oil Terrorism

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:58 AM

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8

International Oil Terrorism

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:47 AM

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International Oil Terrorism

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:38 AM

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6

International Oil Terrorism

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:31 AM

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5

moosef

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 10:08 AM

This is the freedom of the 1st world. Dr John had a great song (forget the title) about the monkey in the coconut tree looking down in disgust at humans. He refused to believe we evolved from them. All about the haves and their need to protect from the have-nots and their need to protect it. Just to prevent the other getting it. Also about how we have to have what others have just to have it. But then again, these cameras also play to peoples paranoia. I dont believe I do anytrhing wrong from day to day but if I had a gun, I would shoot out every CCTV camera I saw. I feel like I,m being watched by perverts

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Bigfoot

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 09:04 AM

The Newspaper Industry in the UK know that if they do not print any Court Cases about Corrupt Police Officers or Corrupt Police Forces, then they can also commit as much crime as they like. A prime example of this was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Assistant Police Commissioner refusing to investigate Murdoch or News International for Criminal Offences in hacking peoples phones, the Commissioner and his Assistant were dining and wining with the Criminal Murdoch and his Criminal Editors, in other words the Metropolitan Police were in the pay of that top CROOK MURDOCH. All these arrests of Editors and Journalists is just a SHAM, this is to deceive the public into making them believe that the Corrupt British Police are doing something, when nothing could be further from the truth, it is all a SHAM, the CPS will state that it is not in the Public Interest to prosecute these top crooks, or they have insufficient evidence of any wrongdoing, because the Police made sure they did not collect or produce the evidence, this is to protect the Corrupt Criminal Empire of Murdoch and News International, or if it gets to Court the Judge will throw it out, as he will also be in the pocket of Murdoch, Murdoch can buy anybody, was that why he went into 10 Downing Street by the back door. The Metropolitan Police Investigation is just a WHITEWASH. The Lying Metropolitan Police stated they were so busy with Terrorists that they had no time or Officers to Pursue News International, but they had plenty of Officers to pursue two Footballers for years, and spent £8 million in doing so, again plenty of Officers and Money to pursue the SMALL FRY, But not the Big Crooks that were paying them to turn a blind eye.

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Bigfoot

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:39 AM

'Assault' Involving Police Outside Parliament Causes Labour MP's Researcher To Complain To Police Watchdog (VIDEO

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Bigfoot

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:38 AM

Watch our Nazi Police State Thugs at work in the link below. 'Assault' Involving Police Outside Parliament Causes Labour MP's Researcher To Complain To Police Watchdog (VIDEO) And you will see that the Police Officers that attempted to defeat the ends of Justice by lying, committing perjury were not charged with anything by the Corrupt CPS, and the Magistrate did not order the CPS to charge them, now if that had been an ordinary citizen that committed perjury and attempted to defeat the ends of justice, they would have been charged. But in a Police State the Corrupt Police get away with Crime and Criminality. And the British Gutter Press did not run this story, but if it was a Police Officer that was assaulted they would have run the story, Removed by the Scotsman as they will say this is not in the PUBLIC NTEREST.

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Bigfoot

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 08:14 AM

Amazing how the Nazi State is spying on us, they say this is for our protection, a home owner friend of mine put in a CCTV system at his home in the early 1990s, it had audio and recording facilities, this was because of crime and drug dealing in the area, the Police got to hear about this, they sent along two Detectives and asked to see the equipment, which my friend willingly did, he had the foresight to use a hidden recorder to record the conversation, and still has that recording today. These two Detectives then charged him with a breach of the peace for having CCTV equipment in his home, he then told them to then go and charge the Banks, Building Societies and Supermarkets also with a breach of the peace, these THICK ALLEGED DETECTIVES THEN SAID, WAIT FOR IT, THAT THESE BANKS, BUILDING SOCIETIES AND SUPERMARKETS HAD THESE CCTV SYSTEMS ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY, MY FRIEND SAID WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS PROPERTY IS, IT IS MY PROPERTY. He also stated to them that they should also go and charge themselves with a breach of the peace as the Police had CCTV Cameras all over the Town. My friend never heard anything more about the charges, as a Solicitor offered to defend him free of charge. The Police again protecting Criminals and Drug Dealers in the area. CCTV Systems operated by the Police is for protecting criminals and those involved in crime, this incident was a prime example, and the crime and drug dealing in the area my friend lives in is now worse than ever, and the Police refuse to view the CCTV Evidence he has, which includes Police dealing in drugs. Now watch the Scotsman remove this comment fast, to protect the crooks and drug dealers.

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