Who Wants to Be a Big Brother?

With 4.2 million surveillance cameras in Britain and not enough people to observe them all, a company called Internet Eyes has come up with a solution: reward volunteer “spies” with cash prizes to watch streaming camera footage and blow the whistle on evildoers. —JCL

The BBC:

There are 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain watching our every move.

In London, there are more CCTV cameras than any other city in the world with one camera for every eight Londoners.

But as victims of crime have found to their cost, catching criminals on camera is dependent on the equipment being both monitored and maintained.

BBC Inside Out’s investigation has found that all too often Big Brother either is not watching, had a broken camera, lost the footage or could not be bothered to go through the tapes.

Even within the Metropolitan Police itself, there are differences of opinion about the value of CCTV.

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flickr.com / andersdenkend

In London, there’s a surveillance camera for every eight people.