Big Brother On British Trains

Michael Meaney

Even more CCTV cameras are currently being installed inside British trains in a £4 million investment programme carried out by train operator One. Over 550 carriages have already been fitted with cameras in the past year alone, making a total of over 630 cameras on British trains.

During the next 12 months One also plans to upgrade and increase CCTV cameras at train stations across the country.

Surveillance in our society is increasing by the day, but at what cost?

Dominic Booth, One’s managing director, said “We are committed to providing our passengers and staff with a safe travelling environment. This £4 million project vastly improves on-board security arrangements, with new equipment providing high quality images which will assist in the prevention and detection of crime on our trains. We will continue to take action to improve safety and security on our trains and at our stations.”

However the number of offences the British Transport Police dealt with last year was actually down by 2%.

In over a year of use it has been used to solve a stabbing incident and charge a vandal spraying graffiti on a train.

Clearly they have a lot of funding and they are not afraid to use it. So what about the footage? The British Transport Police, the civil police and One employees can monitor the footage although The Data Protection Act 1998 allows you to access any footage containing your image, if you want to make your objection known.

The development of town centre CCTV systems has been driven more by the availability of government funding rather than by crime prevention, is this a bandwagon coperations are now jumping on which also increases the growing trend to track our every move?