Big Brother Watch

[PeterJames]

Big Brother Watch website has made a report about CCTV in schools. It makes an interesting read, but for the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would be offended by CCTV?

The BBW report is very one sided it talks about crime not being affected by CCTV, the problem is there is no way of knowing what the deterrent value is as no criminal is ever going to write in to say they did not try and break in to a school because of the CCTV.

I am also disturbed by one of the leading questions asked: 3.) Are any of these cameras located in school changing rooms or bathrooms as of 1st May 2012?

The problem with this question is it suggests to parents (Who the report is primarily aimed at scaring) that cameras are in sensitive areas. The question should of been separated Bathrooms one question, Changing rooms another.

They also seem to forget that all staff working in schools have had a full disclosure. All of my staff have had full disclosures as we carry out a lot of work in schools not just CCTV. Of course a full disclosure does not give anyone the right to watch kids getting changed which is what the report implies, but the disclosure does say that this person is unlikely to want to watch kids getting changed.

I have two children of school age, and their school is mentioned in the report. I know where all the cameras are in their schools because I surveyed and my company installed them. There is no way on this earth I would allow cameras to invade my child's privacy, and I would lay money that no school would allow it to happen either.

The report makes no mention of the good work that CCTV does, one of the schools mentioned was always having the W.Cs damaged until the CCTV was fitted, the fire alarm call points were always being pressed disrupting the children that want to work until the culprits discovered that they would be caught everytime.

CCTV is a very useful tool to schools, if CCTV was around when I was at school then maybe my school life would of been better

I know I am probably biased as CCTV is what I do for a living, but I just cant understand why anyone would think CCTV is a bad thing, unless of course you are up to no good.

Report attached

school_cctv.pdf

[Lwillis]

I was thinking a similar thing to you when I heard this report on the radio today

1 cctv camera per 15 children is what was quoted, maybe I'm being biased aswell but I had cctv in my high school over 8 years ago and it was normal .

I don't see how cctv can be a bad thing . I your not doing anything wrong what difference does it make .

I can understand where they are coming from with cameras in changing rooms but I bet if there was an incident that involved a child abuse an it was caught on the cctv they would be praising it and calling for more .

[PeterJames]

I doubt there is one school with a camera in the changing room, they should of seperated that question. In my day adults and teachers were never very far away, so the need for cameras would be low. Toilets were always where the big boys and smokers met, in my early years at senior school the only time you could use the loo was in class time

[Scotmod]

Basically this clause in their "about us" section makes me suspect this whole 'report' anyway'

Some of our research is funded by research grants from charities. Where applicable, this financial support is indicated at the beginning of such papers. Charity law requires this research to be educational, impartially researched and published on our website for the benefit of the public. However, the conclusions which Big Brother Watch draws from the results of the research are theirs alone and are not attributable to any charity or its trustees.

After looking at their "who we are" page none of them come from a security background, none of them have any experience about our industry or CCTV. It's the usual political drum banging and scare mongering twoddle that the Daily Mail just loves.

[MrHappy]

I found there was healthy culture of vandalism at school & naturally did partake as it would have been rude not too, I'd suspect by now they'll be a cctv in place & aslo susepct a few quid will have been earn't repairing or replacing the items that the kid can get at...

[Oxo]

Never had CCTV , too old perhaps.

Prefects sorted out sillyness. I was one.

Vandals were from local comprehensives, we appreciated what we had.

Therein ls the issue, children have no school related or out of school funded recreation facilities as such.

Today. I think its needed all over, apart from obvious places where indecency laws are paramont.

As for the Daily Mail comments, do you read The Sun?

[Scotmod]

As for the Daily Mail comments, do you read The Sun?

I used to read the daily sport until they canned it. 'i' for 20p is about the only decent lunch time paper worth reading. I did like the Daily Express for it's coverage of the English footy because it's hard to get up here. Tabloids are all the same. The sun bashes labour, the star bashes the sun, the daily mail hasn't printed a paper that didn't include a piece on illegal immigrants or princess diana in the last 10 years.

In short, newspapers are only good for wrapping fish and chips

[james.wilson]

How times change

[SoupDragon]

Had CCTV in my school and when the 'new block' was built they put CCTV in the classrooms too and not just the hallways/outside. There was never any in the changing rooms/toilets though. Never really thought anything of it.

I think it may have been used more for when the school was broken into/mobiles being set on fire as opposed to misbehaving kids .

[Scotmod]

Had CCTV in my school and when the 'new block' was built they put CCTV in the classrooms too and not just the hallways/outside. There was never any in the changing rooms/toilets though. Never really thought anything of it.

I think it may have been used more for when the school was broken into/mobiles being set on fire as opposed to misbehaving kids .

To be fair if I was a teacher these days I would want a camera everywhere bar the changing rooms and staff rooms. All it takes is one false accusation from a little scrote to cause serious stress/damage. We all know what rumors are like but at least you have the always impartial dome. Likewise from the other end of the scale.

My general view of people that get their knickers in a twist over CCTV think that there is someone sitting there staring at a screen 24/7. Bar the police feeds and maybe one or two high end installs I don't think I've ever seen anywhere else constantly monitor the feeds. No one cares. It's all about incident recovery IMHO. Rather than keeping an eye on how many times Mrs Droopytits takes a sip from the vodka bottle in her handbag.