De Leider van de politie vreest een Natie van de Grote Broer

DE KIEUW VAN CHARLOTTE

Groot-Brittannië ziet een' toekomst `Orwellian onder ogen met de camera's van kabeltelevisie op elke straathoek, heeft een hogere politieagent gewaarschuwd.

Ian Readhead, Belangrijkste Constable van de Afgevaardigde van de Politie van Hampshire, zei hij niet in Grote een broer-Stijl wereld wil leven.

Zijn commentaren komen slechts dagen nadat een andere hogere ambtenaar de gelederen verbrak om de „toezichtmaatschappij“ te kritiseren die burgerlijke vrijheden „erodeert“.

M. Readhead vroeg het gebruik van kabeltelevisie op gebieden waar de misdaadniveaus vrij laag zijn.

As an example, he cited the small Hampshire town of Stockbridge, where parish councillors have spent £10,000 erecting cameras.

Mr Readhead said: “I’m struggling with seeing the deployment of cameras in our local villages as being a benefit to policing.

“I understand why the local public say this is what we want but I’m really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras…and what comes next?”

On BBC1’s Politics Show yesterday, he added: “If it’s in our villages - are

we really moving towards an Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner?

“I really don’t think that’s the kind of country that I want to live in.”

Mr Readhead also called for the use of speed cameras to be reviewed and more consideration of why DNA evidence of suspects was kept.

The Government’s controversial DNA database contains more than four million samples, including those of 1.1million people who were arrested but never convicted.

He said: “My concern is this - we are in a society at the moment where the police have the power that if they arrest a 15-year-old for a recordable offence we can retain their DNA and their fingerprints for life.

“Is it right that that may impede that person, who’s never been arrested again, from getting a job? I’m not sure that sits comfortably with me.

“I don’t think the police should be the ones who regulate it and the telling point is - just how powerful do you want your police to be?”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: “As John Reid pushes for the deployment of talking CCTV cameras barking

instruction at passers-by, it is significant that senior police officers are starting to speak out.

“Something is wrong when police officers, rather than Government ministers, seem more concerned about the protection of our customary British liberties.”

Last week, acting Chief Constable of Suffolk Police, Colin Langham-Fitt complained about the lurch towards a surveillance society, and the Government’s plans for ID cards.

He said: “There should be debate about the ongoing erosion of civil liberties in the name of the fight against terrorism and the fight against crime.

“Are we all happy to have our cards monitored wherever we go, to be on CCTV and to have our shopping tracked?”

Britain has 20 per cent of the world’s CCTV cameras, or an estimated 4.2million - one for every 14 people.

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