Big Brother is watching you but we don't mind

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Britons are far more in favour of Big Brother-style cameras to track criminals than speeding motorists, according to a new study.

The poll of 2,016 UK adults by online research firm YouGov found that the majority (88 per cent) of the population are happy for CCTV to be used to fight crime. But only 58 per cent were in favour of monitoring car tax evaders, while 54 per cent thought it was right to its use against speeding offenders.

The survey found that there was a difference between men and women over the use of cameras to track dangerous drivers, 82 per cent of women believed it should be used to help catch drunk drivers, compared with 74 per cent of men.

The research also found that 76 per cent of respondents said CCTV should be used to find missing people, while 70 per cent were in favour of using it for crowd control and 79 per cent would use it to combat shoplifting.

Advances in CCTV technology now mean that cameras can feed images back over the internet (IPCCTV), allowing police to have high resolution images and videos of incidents sent directly to squad cars. It has also allowed local authorities to monitor town centres for anti-social behaviour.

"CCTV plays a significant role in ensuring security and safety of citizens and has proven to be a very successful crime deterrent in our region," said Councillor Tom Maginnis of North Lanarkshire Council.

"We have one of the largest IPCCTV infrastructures in Europe and continuously look at new ways of using it for public welfare, whether it's monitoring big public events or preventing fly tipping," he added.

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