Camden council says sorry for installing flash-equipped camera with robotic American accent that takes indiscriminate pictures
Camden residents oppose council's 'robo-camera'. A council has apologised for installing a "robo-camera" in a housing estate garden which indiscriminately takes pictures of anyone entering, residents included, before warning them they are in a restricted area and face prosecution.
London's Camden council said it recently installed the flash-equipped cameras in the borough to tackle antisocial behaviour but mistakenly activated the robotic voice message for one in the communal gardens of the Walker House estate, near Euston station. In darkness the camera automatically takes a photo when triggered by a motion sensor. A voice then warns: "Stop! This is a restricted area and your photograph was just taken. We will use it to prosecute you. Leave the area now."
Camden residents oppose council's 'robo-camera'. A council has apologised for installing a "robo-camera" in a housing estate garden which indiscriminately takes pictures of anyone entering, residents included, before warning them they are in a restricted area and face prosecution.
London's Camden council said it recently installed the flash-equipped cameras in the borough to tackle antisocial behaviour but mistakenly activated the robotic voice message for one in the communal gardens of the Walker House estate, near Euston station. In darkness the camera automatically takes a photo when triggered by a motion sensor. A voice then warns: "Stop! This is a restricted area and your photograph was just taken. We will use it to prosecute you. Leave the area now."
In a statement the council said the Walker House camera was installed in September last year in response to an increasing number of complaints of antisocial behaviour. All of its similar cameras,manufactured by Q Star Technologies, can issue the verbal message but this was normally deactivated, it added.
"All flash cameras have the capacity to deliver voice messages when activated but in this instance it appears that voice messages were inadvertently activated when the camera batteries were replaced four to five weeks ago," the statement said.
Camden said the cameras themselves were installed as "a temporary measure", and added: "We do not want to stop residents from enjoying their open spaces and communal areas and under no circumstances would we want voice messages to be used in areas where they may be disturbed. The voice messages will be deactivated as soon as possible."
One resident, Jim Jepps, who posted a video on YouTube on Saturdayprotesting against the council's actions, said he had noticed the camera before but believed the menacing, US-accented voice had been turned on over the weekend.
"There had been a flash camera there before, but they activated [the voice] on Saturday," he said.
Jepps, 41 who runs the website Big Smoke, and has lived on the estate for eight months, said that most residents were horrified by the camera: "This is not CCTV. This is something completely different. This is something that tells residents that they are in a restricted area and they have to move on.
"Anyone who goes to work at the normal time [when it is dark] would have had their picture taken. And anyone who goes outside basically after probably half-five will have had their picture taken... It's a residential area. Its our community garden. It's not appropriate.
"This is a measure that is meant to tackle antisocial behaviour but it is antisocial behaviour. If we had a man in the garden telling everybody to move on and that they were in a restricted area, we'd call the police because it is not on.
"I suspect the people who made this decision don't live anywhere near here. They certainly don't have a robot outside their house," adding that he welcomed Camden's decision to switch off the voice.
A local Labour councillor, Roger Robinson, who previously voiced support for the camera, said that there had been numerous reports of antisocial behaviour and drug dealing in the area.
"For God's sake, if someone doesn't want us to do it then okay, fine... We were doing it as an experiment to try and make sure these young men, these yobbos do not cause harassment to these residents. The idea is to do them [the residents] a favour, to do them a service. If they don't want it, fine."
The council said they had received "positive feedback from residents on the estate" and evidence from the cameras had led to a number of antisocial behaviour orders being obtained.
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"Orwell meets Alice in Wonderland as British police officer ‘acting suspiciously’ chases himself for 20 minutes" posts Stacy Herbert
An undercover police officer "chased himself round the streets" for 20 minutes after a CCTV operator mistook him for suspect.
The junior officer, who has not been named, was monitoring an area hit by a series of burglaries in an unnamed market town in the country’s south.
As the probationary officer from Sussex Police searched for suspects, the camera operator radioed that he had seen someone “acting suspiciously” in the area.
But he failed to realise that it was actually the plain-clothed officer he was watching on the screen, according to details leaked to an industry magazine.
The operator directed the officer, who was on foot patrol, as he followed the "suspect" on camera last month, telling his colleague on the ground that he was "hot on his heels".
The officer spent around 20 minutes giving chase before a sergeant came into the CCTV control room, recognised the “suspect” and laughed hysterically at the mistake.
The details of the operation blunder were leaked to Police magazine, which is published by the Police Federation, this week by a senior officer who witnessed the embarrassing incident.
Sussex police were unable to provide further details of the incident, the officers involved or where it occurred.
The anonymous officer, believed to be the PC's sergeant, told the monthly magazine: "An officer who joined a team in Sussex as a new probationary officer was soon very keen to do any plain-clothes operations and be as proactive as possible.
"He would be waiting at the end of his shift hoping to be unleashed for a further couple of hours of plain-clothes duties.
"On one such occasion in a little market town in Sussex which has suffered a spate of town centre shop break-ins, officers were on plain-clothed foot patrol when a report was received of a suspect male in one of the side roads.”
"The CCTV operator soon had the suspect on camera and everywhere he saw the male the keen PC was on his heels – radioing in to say he was in the same street.”
He added: "Every time the man darted in to another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway, but every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see there was no trace."
It was at this point that the sergeant entered the control room where he recognised the junior officer.
"With the sergeant's sides aching from laughter he pointed out to the PC that the operator had been watching him unaware that he was a pain-clothes officer – thus the PC had been chasing himself round the streets."
A police source told The Daily Telegraph: "We've had a couple of funnies lately, but all taken in good spirit."
On Tuesday night a spokesman for the force, which has about 3000 officers, could not provide any further details on the operation due to a lack of information.
He added: “Policing is often a serious business, so we all enjoy moments of light relief.
“This story was shared anonymously with the Police Federation magazine, so unfortunately without the date or location, confirming the details and locating the officer is harder for us than it was for the CCTV operator.”