Random Places

Two months ago, a man was attacked at the Surrey Central station. Though the assault itself is newsworthy, what caught my attention was that it happened inside the so-called “Designated Waiting Area”, supposedly the safest area at a Skytrain station due to the abundance of CCTVs and emergency phone. It wasn’t until the victim used the phone to call that help arrived however.[1] If there’s anything that would justify more security personnel monitoring more security cameras, this would be it. According to Translink spokeperson, Ken Hardie, they just can’t afford more personnel. A similar situation is happening in London, UK (possibly the one city in the world with more CCTV than there are people on the street), London’s top policeman believes no more cameras should be installed as not all the data are being processed. Perhaps they can both outsource their surveillance to a new service called Internet Eyes, where the website members are rewarded for reporting suspicious behaviour on their assigned cameras.[2] After all, in accordance with open source ideology, more scrutinizing eyes equals better security, especially since the number of photographers terrorists these days grows exponentially. Alternatively, they can wait for a developing technology where the CCTV systems can automatically spot suspicious activities, thus minimizing human error and bias.[3] Let’s see what kind of behaviour is considered possibly criminal:

• Moving seats
• Groups of young men
• People falling
• Loitering in stairwell

My gods, I can’t believe how much crime I could’ve prevented if I’d only watched for such tell-tale signs.

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[1] Peter Grainger. MLA calls for more security after SkyTrain assault. CTV. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090726/bc_skytrain_security_090726/20090726/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome.

[2] Chris Williams. CCTV website recruits video vigilantes. The Register. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/05/internet_eyes/.

[3] Dominic Casciani. Bus CCTV could predict assaults. BBC News. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8270934.stm.

Tags: cctv, privacy, translink, uk