History of CCTV Cameras
1961: Installation of CCTV video surveillance system at a London Transport train station.
1964: Liverpool police experiment with four covert CCTV cameras in the city’s center.
1965: British Railways installs CCTV cameras to watch tracks near Dagenham that had been vandalized.
1967: Photoscan (business) markets CCTV camera surveillance systems to retail outlets as a means of deterring and catching shoplifters.
October 1968: Metropolitan Police use temporary CCTV cameras in Grosvenor Square to monitor Anti-Vietnam War demonstrators.
1969: Metropolitan Police install permanent CCTV cameras in Grosvenor Square, Whitehall and Parliament Square. Total number of cameras nationally: 67.
1974: Installation of CCTV camera surveillance systems to monitor traffic on the major arterial roads in and through London.
1975: Installation of video CCTV camera surveillance system in four London Underground train stations.
1975: Use of CCTV camera surveillance systems at football matches begins.
1984: Installation of CCTV surveillance cameras at major rallying points for public protest in central London. Picketers surveilled during miners’ strike.
August 1985: Installation of street-based CCTV camera video surveillance system in Bournemouth, a south coast seaside resort.
1987: Use of CCTV camera surveillance systems at parking garages owned by local authorities begins.
1988: Installation of CCTV video surveillance systems at “council estates” run by local authorities.
1989: Civil rights group Liberty publishes Who’s watching you? video surveillance in public places.
1992: installation of street-based video CCTV camera surveillance system in Newcastle (a major northern city). The system in Newcastle is closed-circuit television (CCTV) that uses microwaves (an open circuit) to link to the city’s main police station.
1992: Use of CCTV speed cameras and red-light enforcement cameras on the national road network begins.
August 1993: bombing of Bishopsgate in London by the IRA leads to the construction of the “Ring of Steel” around the City (London financial district). Measures include street-based CCTV surveillance cameras.
1994: Central government (the Home Office) publishes CCTV: Looking Out for You. Prime Minister John Major states: “I have no doubt we will hear some protest about a threat to civil liberties. Well, I have no sympathy whatsoever for so-called liberties of that kind.” Between 1994 and 1997, the Home Office spends a total of 38 million pounds of CCTV schemes.
July 1994: Use of covert CCTV cameras surveillance systems at automatic teller machines (ATMs) begins.
1996: Government spending on CCTV accounts for more than three-quarters of total crime prevention budget.
August 1996: All of England’s major cities except Leeds have video surveillance systems in their city centers.
10th May 1997: Public demonstration against CCTV surveillance cameras in Brighton, organized by South Downs Earth First!.
July 1997: London police announce installation of CCTV surveillance camera system that automatically reads, recognizes and tracks automobiles by their license plates.
October 1998: use of CCTV face recognition software in the London Borough of Newham begins. References
Cash heist robbery caught on CCTV
http://www.urbaneye.net/ Eye on the City: Do Cameras Reduce Crime?“, ABC News, 2007-07-09. Retrieved on 2007-07-10
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
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“Talking CCTV pioneered in Wiltshire”, BBC news.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.suntimes.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/
http://www.news.independent.co.uk
http://www.news.independent.co.uk
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://rtmark.com/
http://naimark.net/
External Links
UK Government pro-CCTV campaign
Assessing the Impact of CCTV, a UK Home office study on the effectiveness of closed-circuit television
The Register story: Face recognition useless for crowd surveillance
CCTV Guidance notes from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office
CBC Digital Archives - The Long Lens of the Law
The Urbaneye Project on CCTV in Europe
CCTV:Constant Cameras Track Violators National Institute of Justice Journal 249 (2003). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
The documentary film Every Step You Take (by Nino Leitner) about CCTV in Britain