London Police Equipped With 360-Degree Cams

OriginalArlen writes, "In a story so surreal I had to check the primary source, the Register reports that the (London, UK) Metropolitan Police are trying out the use of eight tiny cams, mounted in the police helmet, to provide 360-degree evidence gathering in the event that an officer witnesses a crime. The press release also gives more evidence of the stealth spread of ubiquitous ANPR systems across the country as a spin-off 'benefit' to the London car congestion-charging scheme, which is likely to be rolled out across the country in the next few years. Are we already living in a Panopticon Society?" According to this report from the information commissioner for Great Britain, yep.

Comments

Robocop

[frederec]

Maybe I'm the only one, but when I saw the headline, I thought of the line in Robocop: "You idiot! His memory is admissible as evidence!"

Updated greeting

[johnw]

So now a London bobby's greeting will be, "Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello"?

Re:Updated greeting

[Rik Sweeney]

So now a London bobby's greeting will be, "Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello"?

No, because a standard greeting is "Ello, ello ello" so times eight it would be

"Ello, ello ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello, ello?"

By which time you've finished mugging the kid and done a runner.

Re:What about the cops?

[Anonymous Coward]

And then the cop sees a girl in a bikini and chases her around for a while at high speed to some uptempo yakety sax.

Re:Doesn't seem TOO bad

[Savage-Rabbit]

Honestly I find the prevalence of cameras mounted to buildings for policing (such as those found across London) to be more disturbing. It seems more okay when you're using cameras to document the course of a police officer's work.

Don't you think that in the end all those trips to the donut shop would get boring? The endless conversations about hemorrhoids would definetly be disturbing....

Meanwhile in the U.S...

[eno2001]

Bush administration officials announced today that for national security, homeland security will be installing cameras in every American's underpants starting on 1 January 2007. The cameras are to protect America from the evils of sin and sex and to provide the senators and congressmen with easy access to protect the jewel of American society: the teen boy. This plan is part of a larger project that was spearheaded by the departed Donald Rumsfeld last year who departed amid criticisms that he encourage homosexual acts in Abu Grahib as a method of stress relief for the soldiers. His original "Operation Panty-cam" plan was discouraged due to concerns about the name and what it implied.

Re:Must resist Pun

[EEPROMS]

dam it
[queue music = inspector gadget]

Re:Terrorism, antisocial behaviour, etc.

[L4m3rthanyou]

spin-laden

The real terrorist! :o

Re:If we aren't careful, this will happen here too

[PurpleRain]

I don't think having cameras in public places is really giving up any freedoms. If they had cameras in my home or workplace, I would be a little more concerned, but it's public! Anyone could be sitting on a park bench watching you just like the camera is watching you. What's the big deal?