Increase in CCTV Cameras in Cairns

Michael Cope, the President of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, today expressed concern about the extension of CCTV into the suburban areas of Cairns.

“CCTV is a cheap way for politicians to be seen to be doing something to reduce crime. But it creates a false sense of security for the public.”

‘Whilst we accept there is evidence that CCTV helps in the prosecution of crime, in the Council’s view there is no evidence to support the proposition that the use of CCTV deters crime.[1]”

Mr Cope said, “What CCTV does is push crime to areas where there is no CCTV. Hence the need to ever expand the area covered by the CCTV. Where does this end? Is it worth the creation of Surveillance Society in which our every move is recorded and stored in a database to be used by government to make judgments about us?”

QCCL asks, what rules have been put in place by the Cairns Council to control the use of the footage? In Ipswich in 2012 a parking inspector was caught using the cameras to fine illegally parked vehicles. Hardly the violent crime these cameras are said to be used to prevent.

“For example the Council is of the view that unless the CCTV footage reveals some incident it should be destroyed within 24 hours.”

.Mr Cope said, “The Council repeats its call for local government to impose a moratorium on the introduction of further CCTV until a privacy impact assessment has been made by the office of the Privacy Commissioner and appropriate guidelines set down by him.”

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[1] Report of the UK Home Office, February 2005 and a report to the Home Office reported by The Guardian on 18 May 2009. And the 2010 the Victorian Law Reform Commission report on Surveillance