Bumped cars and dented confidence

A dented car can be repaired – it’s the dented confidence that makes you think, writes our blogger Emma Suddaby.

Here in the UK we have over a million CCTV cameras protecting our streets at a cost of over £79 million per year. According to statistics, we’re caught on camera countless times during a normal day, and here in Shropshire, it’s no different. 

And I listen to the arguments raging. On the one side are those who fear our privacy has all but disappeared; on the other they say the innocent have nothing to fear from such surveillance. And to be honest, I agree with aspects of both arguments.

But the reality is that neither camp need get themselves so worked up about the rights and wrongs of the CCTV boom, because it turns out hardly any of the street cameras actually work, anyway!

A friend of mine had her car vandalised in one of Shrewsbury’s town-centre car parks a couple of weeks ago. It’s the sort of thing you’d normally write off as bad luck, get repaired and move on, but  my friend has had some trouble recently and, worried this might be more than mere vandalism, she was anxious to see what the cameras had picked up.

But after trolling up to the police station and giving her statement, she was informed that, regrettably, none of the cameras lining the busy approach to the car park are in working order. Not only that, but just two of the many cameras that are supposed to give us all such peace of mind within the car park itself are actually working.

And if that’s the case, you have to wonder how many of the town-centre cameras are really filming anything?

This twanged a nerve for me, having recently watched a documentary following the police as they attempted to track via CCTV, and ultimately catch, criminal gangs on shoplifting sprees. It soon became a film about defunct CCTV cameras when, everywhere the police tried to follow the gangs, the dud cameras’ blind-spots foiled them. Apparently it’s normal to have so many useless CCTV cameras on pretend-duty, patrolling our streets.

So I guess they’re left in place as a deterrent. After all, Joe Criminal doesn’t know which cameras work and which don’t. Or does he? Because whoever took it out on my friend’s car didn’t seem unduly worried by the fact that the car park was bristling with CCTV. And the serious street crime the nation’s been suffering lately hardly speaks of criminals kept in check by all the cameras, does it?

So never mind worrying about losing your privacy, you’re still far more likely to lose your wallet, I’m afraid, and while you’re busy thanking goodness for the CCTV, the thief will be blowing kisses to those cameras . . .

PHRASE OF THE WEEK

This week we have our first Phrase of the Week, and the phrase is: PARTHIAN SHOT.

 A PARTHIAN SHOT is a final hostile remark, made on departing; we’d normally call it having the last word. It has an interesting history, coming from the practise of the horsemen of ancient Parthia of turning to shoot arrows at following enemies as they rode away. Brilliant.

So you could say: “ I don’t know, these columnists . . . always have to sign off with a PARTHIAN SHOT!”