The moving camera

There’s a CCTV surveillance camera in the middel of Bath that freaks me out. Don’t get me wrong – I’m used to being observed. Here in the UK there’s a camera on every streetcorner, and the police CCTV car is everywhere. But this particular camera sends shivers down my spine.

It moves.

And everytime I hear that metallic sound of the camera moving, I picture Chloe O Brian at the CTU zeroing in on my face only to send Jack Bauer off on a new mission. That camera follows my every move, I’m telling you! And now it appears that Chloe will get a new toy to play with. According to the Guardian, the UK police is planning to use unmanned spy drones to monitor the population. From moving cameras to surveillance planes! One need not be paranoid to assert that the entire UK is turning in to one giant panopticon.

But these news follow the announcement that the terror threat is raised from “substantial” to “severe”. People feel under siege and are not likely to complain about moving cameras or flying surveillance.

Yet the drones are not primarily going to look for terrorists, but rather “antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers.” They will “revolutionise policing”, according to Kent police.

I do not doubt the utility of these drones in catching criminals. But they are a stellar example of how techniques developed for fighting terrorists are being extended to fighting crime in general. Moreover, they illustrate how the war on terror has created a permissive environment for increased government surveillance of ordinary citizens. The data retention directive would never have been enacted were it not for the war on terror. Yet the communication data it forces providers to store is availiable to national authorities investigating “serious crime” – as defined by national authorities!

Even laws that are explicitly formulated to fight terrorism are routinely abused by police for other purposes. In London, artists with digital cameras are put behind bars for suspected terrorist activities. Taxmen use anti-terror laws to spy on alleged tax-evaders. Local councils rely on terror-laws to spy on everything from noisy children to barking dogs and illegal fishing – the list goes on.

It’s time we stop dismissing references to Orwell as alarmist naiveté. The camera is moving. Can you hear it too?