Against: ‘We need clear boundaries’

IN THE 1970s, Justice first warned the law was lagging behind technology which limited our personal privacy. There are now more CCTV cameras in the UK than any other nation on earth.

In 2009, it was reported that Shetland Islands Council, with a population of 22,000, had more than the San Francisco Police Department, where the population is three million.

Not all CCTV is a bad thing.

It is a tool which has been used to prevent and detect crime and to protect public safety; but its impact on our privacy is obvious.

CCTV on Sauchiehall Street used to prosecute someone suspected of assault during a post-pub brawl may be justified, but a proposal to encircle a Birmingham community with a CCTV “ring of steel” is not.

We need to ask how far our rights to privacy can be restricted in the public interest, and what safeguards are needed.

CCTV on the night bus might sound good, but should everything we do in a licensed taxi be recorded?

Last year, in our report Freedom from Suspicion: Surveillance Reform for a Digital Age, we called for a new national conversation on how the law regulates surveillance.

Clear boundaries on who operates CCTV, how our images are stored and used are long overdue.

• Angela Patrick, is director of human rights policy at Justice