I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

And I have no privacy.....w'oh, oh, oh

With apologies to Rockwell, but that song seems to be our theme tune at the moment on the tube.

I suppose I'm always aware of people watching me on the London Underground itself, as for years I've been looking suspicious trying to take pictures of commuters for the blog without them noticing. Usually the person I'm photographing doesn't notice, but the people sitting next to me often do, and probably think I'm a psycho. But hey it's the Tube, no one says anything (perhaps that will change now).

However, with all the police around at the moment and lots of people checking out the rucksacks of everyone else, now many more of us get that feeling of being watched.

What I have become more aware of is CCTV on the tube, specially as Metro helpfully published an article telling us just how many CCTV cameras there are on the tube. Again, to quote Rockwell "Do the people on TV see me or am I just paranoid?" - certainly people in the control rooms where CCTV is operating see you. There are 6,000 cameras in place on London Underground. "As part of the Public Private Partnerships with Metronet and Tube Lines, this is set to rise to at least 12,000 by 2010. The plans are welcomed by the BTP (British Transport Police), which has 681 officers dedicated to the Tube and around 600 officers patrolling the mainline stations in London.".....

"Acknowledgement of CCTV's importance has come from the top. Andy Trotter, BTP Deputy Chief Constable told last week's meeting of the London Transport Users Committee (LTUC): 'CCTV is essential to our work - we would not have got to where we are today without it.'

Sing a-long now!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, August 05, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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