You’re right, the media attention does make these knife attacks seem more common than they are in practice and we shouldn’t get overly alarmed. Official over-reaction is likely to do more harm than good.

The gang violence is a concern but the prevalence of gangs isn’t a new phenomonen. Casualty managed to get a story covered so it must be known about!

Don’t get dragged into a terrified state. Read an LA newspaper and see how that feels and then realise that LA is actually pretty safe.

Similarly, we don’t want to see an ever increasing percentage of our population locked up in jail.

As to government abuse of power, sure, it may seem unlikely today, but we have all seen cases of governments sliding into abuse. Spain and Germany are recent past examples and I’m not sure that these kinds of surveillance techniques would be a good thing in some of the Balkan states.

There definitely needs to be limits on governmental powers…

‘How do we protect ourselves against a future extremist government abusing the powers so many of us are happy to grant now?’

I think Chris’ comment is a bit alarmist in the context of the UK and the rest of the democratic western world. We are a haven of democracy and I just can’t see a scenario where there is a future extremist government..

If you think London is genteel, you ought to come to Ryde..!

I think we’re about up to that already in sleepy ol’ Fresno, California (pop. half a million). And 112-degree temperatures such as we’re having at the moment aren’t going to help keep that number down

Ah, to walk the genteel streets of London once again…

On the one hand, correctly deployed CCTV offers some measure of, if not protection from, at least detection of those committing crimes in public.

On the other hand, it does require a certain amount of faith in those in charge of the system.

As we have seen in places like Burma and Zimbabwe recently, an oppressive state can be a real danger to its people.

How do we protect ourselves against a future extremist government abusing the powers so many of us are happy to grant now?

Everyone is crying for more cameras. Yet, no one is wondering how all of those images will be processed. Automatic systems are great for number plates. Yet, the technology is not quite there for masked or hooded criminals.

Like Jon says, we don’t necessarily need more cameras. We need capable installers working with reputable equipment – following a well thought out plan. Simply putting a camera on top of an 8m pole and hoping for the best isn’t cutting it.

I would venture to suggest that rather than more and better cameras, we actually need more people that know what they are doing with the existing technology.

CCTV will only prevent (or perhaps more accurately contribute to a reduction in) criminality if it is used effectively to tackle current problems, and therefore either deter (through detection), or help to remove from wider society, those responsible for unlawful activity.

Unless and until existing CCTV and IP Video systems are correctly profiled, deployed and operated in an appropriate and effective manner, then the potential for this technology to have a significant effect on reducing crime, will be sadly undermined.

Jon

Violent crimes, particularly knifings, are this year’s “dangerous dogs” phenomenon and Eurocritics writer Pete Wilder is not a happy man….