Bebi
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Oi, you! Yes, you... CCTV gets a voice in English town | Quote: | LONDON (AFP) - Big Brother -- in the form of closed-circuit television cameras -- is not only watching people misbehaving in one English town, it is also telling them off.
Municipal council officials in Middlesbrough, northeast England, have fitted microphones to seven CCTV cameras in the town centre that yell at people up to no good.
"It is like a public humiliation in a way, but it means that the person won't do it again," said councillor Barry Coppinger, of Middlesbrough Council.
"The voice addresses the person who is littering for example, directly by saying, 'Could the person in the green jacket please pick that up'. It can be embarrassing."
Coppinger hopes the talking cameras, which cost 50,000 pounds (74,000 euros, 94,000 dollars) to set up, will act as a deterrent to troublemakers or those intent on being anti-social.
The cameras are manned by operatives at Middlesbrough's CCTV command centre, which is linked to police headquarters.
Since being installed at the start of August, Coppinger said feedback had been encouraging. The CCTV operator is responsible for handing out the verbal warnings.
"A lot of people are quite surprised when they hear the voice for the first time, I think it gets to their guilty conscience," he said.
Middlesbrough has one of the most extensive CCTV networks in Britain. In 2005, it helped catch 678 criminals and locate 15 missing people, the local authority said. |
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18092006...cctv-gets-voice-english-town.html
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