A short while after the Election, I googled +LibDems +CCTV in order to try and find out more about what how Freedom Bill would affect CCTV. All I can seem to find in terms of the Bill is that it means "further regulation of CCTV".
However, in my search I stumbled across a good few local LibDem websites that report how keenly their local councillors and activists have campaigned in favour of CCTV up and down the country. If you look to the right of the page you will see I have listed a link to all the ones I have found plus a few other links that are both relevant and interesting.
The efforts of all the local LibDem activists that have campaigned for and supported CCTV are laudible and I absolutely agree with them. However, the "Do Gooder" element in the national party must be raising an eyebrow at this as it does not sit well with what I understand to be the party's national policy on CCTV. "Further Regulation" could mean anything from tighter licensing and curbs on authorised use to effective outright prohibition. And by the latter I don't mean legislation to outlaw the use of CCTV, but rather red tape measures (rather ironically) that will make it very expensive or administratively inconvenient to use.
My experience (yes, note I use the word "experience", not "opinion") is that CCTV works. As for civil liberties, I believe it protects them, rather than erodes them. It protects the liberties of those who go about their daily, law-abiding business; it protects property and the safety of those living or working in it. Is not safety, or at least the feeling of it, a liberty?
I do understand and have some sympathy will the libertarian concerns of intrusiveness and spying. But I would rather people were allowed to protect their homes and businesses with cameras rather than guns (the latter being the Libertarian view). After all, if we are talking about civil liberties, I consider cameras far more civil than guns.
So I will await and see what the Freedom bill brings and in the meantime, as the LibDems make their national opposition to CCTV more vocal, it will be interesting to see how many of those webpages I have linked to stay live...
