CCTV might help find bombers

2005-07-07 20:24

London - Almost everywhere Londoners go in public, chances are they're being tracked by cameras.

Now officials say the British capital's ubiquitous closed-circuit TV cameras may hold the key to helping police determine who was behind Thursday's attacks.

Thousands of them watch the subway system alone, and investigators have used the footage in the past to solve crimes.

London's train stations are monitored by 1 800 cameras, and there are more than 6 000 watching the capital's Underground subway network.

Cameras also have been installed on some London buses.

On top of that, more and more people carry pocket-size digital cameras and camera phones, and some footage from such sources, inside subway cars, had already found its way to British TV by afternoon.

"Clearly we've had considerable success in the past using closed-circuit television footage in order to trace the movements of the people involved" in various crimes, deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick said after Thursday's bloody subway and bus attacks.

Full access

"That will be one of our first priorities, as well as securing whatever forensic evidence we can secure from the various scenes," Paddick said.

Police will have full access to all footage taken of the London subway system and the bus network, as well as images from cameras mounted around the entrances to stations and at bus stops, authorities said on Thursday.

An estimated 4.2 million cameras - largely concentrated in London and other major cities - observe Britons as they go about their daily business, whether they're waiting for a bus, riding a train, lining up at a bank or parking a car in a public garage.

The phalanx of security cameras has earned Britain a reputation as a world leader of surveillance, and has led to criticism that the constant monitoring takes the Orwellian concept of "Big Brother" to an extreme.

Critics contend the system is of limited use because the monitoring screens at the CCTV command post aren't closely watched in real time, meaning the images rarely are used to stop a crime in progress - only help authorities investigate one after the fact.

It's widely estimated that the average Briton is caught on various cameras up to 300 times on a normal day.

But police have had success in the past in solving crimes by poring over frames of video footage.

Such work has become a routine part of police operations, the Metropolitan Police said.

Last year, closed-circuit video helped British authorities in several high-profile cases, including a 12-year-old boy who robbed a store at gunpoint; the disappearance of a doctor; attacks by a serial rapist; a father and son hit by a train; a rash of school laptop computer thefts; and a soccer riot.

- AP