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It seems that in the UK [tag]surveillance cameras[/tag] are every where. Depending on your prospective thats a good thing or a bad thing. To me it depends on the purpose. For example this article recently spoke about putting [tag] security cameras[/tag] in the class room of a school.

Surveillance: Watched from every angle
Young People Now - London,UK
They don’t belong to a teacher or a fellow pupil but a CCTV camera tucked away in the corner. “There are cameras everywhere,” says Thomas, …

Schools here in the US and abroad are facing a rise in student violence and simple bad behavior. In the situation of schools it seems that it would be a good thing on several levels. For one as a simple deterent. Secondly should a crime occur during school hours it would be solved very quickly.

On the other hand it seems like an over reach for the individual to put cameras inside their own home unless its to monitor a baby sitter or an elderly parent’s well being.

 

Here’s an interesting story about the use of CCTV cameras near the author of 1984 by George Orwell
 

Orwell’s Big Brother eyes up his doorstep

IT is not so much a case of “Big Brother is watching you” but more “Big Business is watching you”.
In his novel 1984, author George Orwell offered a bleak prediction of the surveillance state of the future. So he would surely be appalled by the CCTV cameras watching the comings and goings close to his old flat in Canonbury Square, Canonbury.
Far from being instruments of the state, the cameras – more than 30 of them – belong to private companies and well-to-do residents. The first two cameras are within 200 yards of Orwell’s old flat at 27b, which is commemorated by a blue plaque.
There is more CCTV at a nearby conference centre in Canonbury Place and at the back of a car dealership near the Compton Arms, Orwell’s old local. It is reckoned there are a further 28 cameras within 200 yards of Canonbury Square.
Shopkeepers and owners of high-value homes say that having CCTV makes them feel more secure. But residents are concerned about the constant surveillance.
Andy Gardner, 36, a regular at the Compton Arms, said: “It feels like we are heading towards a surveillance society. I am a law-abiding citizen yet from the moment I leave my front door to the moment I come back home my life is on film. It is nobody else’s business what I do and where I go, yet it’s all there on camera.”
Childminder Geraldine Tucky, 48, who works in Canonbury Square, said: “They are taking away our privacy and it feels like we are being watched. I have learnt not to think about the cameras, even though I can see them everywhere.
“Break-ins must be rare around here but people are paranoid. They are living in fear but that’s not how I would choose to live my life.”
But Bill Brewer, 57, a builder from Southgate Road, said: “I have nothing to hide so I’m not bothered at all. They make people like me safer.”
The borough’s ruling Lib Dems had to be forced by Labour councillors into extending CCTV coverage. There will soon be 112 council-run cameras, plus a number operated by Transport for London on main roads. Two mobile CCTV vans also patrol.
But, probably to Orwell’s relief, the nearest camera controlled by the Town Hall is a good half-a-mile away, at Highbury and Islington station.

 You can visit this link for the full story
http://www.thecnj.co.uk/islington/040607/news040607_24.html