CCTV "report crime, win prizes" game triggers row, launch doubtful

A new British company called Internet Eyes (www.interneteyes.co.uk) is signing up viewers to watch live streams of CCTV cameras from shops and businesses and report anything they believe to be suspicious.

A monthly reward of £1000 will be paid out to the person who reports the most crimes, the company said.

According to Tony Morgan, managing director, Internet Eyes, the amateur crime-fighting venture is not a game but a 'crime prevention weapon."

"This isn't a game - it's serious. This is all about crime prevention and it could be very, very effective. At the moment people look at CCTV and think someone might or might not be watching so they commit the crimes anyway. Once this gets going and we get signs saying that the CCTV is part of our scheme, it will be an extra deterrent because people will know they are probably being watched," Morgan said.

According to Morgan, there are over 4 million CCTV cameras in the UK and only "one in a thousand gets watched."

"Crimes are bound to get missed but this way the cameras will be watched by lots of people 24-hours-a-day," he said.

The company said the CCTV cameras' owners will be charged £20 per month for putting live footage from their cameras on www.interneteyes.co.uk.

At any given time, live footage from four different cameras will be shown. The locations will be kept secret and will change every 10 minutes.

If viewers see something suspicious, the website allows them to send an instant SMS message to the shopkeeper with a screen grab of what they are reporting.

Participants will be awarded one point for spotting a suspected crime and three points if they see someone committing an actual crime.

Participants, however, will lose points if the camera operator rules out the alert as a crime.

And, to deter people from sending too many false alarms, Morgan said the first 3 texts a month will be free, after which they will cost £1 each.

To prevent abuse of the game, participants will also be blocked or suspended temporarily for sending three incorrect alerts.

The website will also feature hall of fame in which suspected 'criminals' along with a list of their offences and the name of internet user caught them will be posted.

Internet Eyes said they will first focus on the Stratford-upon-Avon area of central England when the venture launches towards the end of November.

The company also said it was in negotiations with local police about how they could potentially join forces with the participants.

However, several civil liberties groups have slammed the scheme with at least one saying the game will create a "snooper paradise."

"It is an appalling idea for a game and will create a snoopers paradise. It is something which should be nipped in the bud immediately. It will not only encourage a dangerous spying mentality by turning crime into a game but also could lead to dangerous civil rights abuses," said Charles Farrier, spokesman for the No CCTV campaign group said, likening it to the Big Brother society of George Orwell's "1984."

"What if a group of racists decide to send alerts every time a black person is seen on screen and what's stopping criminals using the cameras to scope out where to commit crimes," Farrier said.

"It is a distasteful and worrying development of surveillance society and where it is going. CCTV has been proved to be ineffective and they are trying to capitalize on this which is sick," he added.

Farrier has also called the £1000 prize "a cheap gimmick" to attract people into signing up.

Agrees Michael Laurie, chief of Crimestoppers. "While the motive may be sound, the concept of Internet Eyes seems to ask more questions than it answers, with a wide range of opportunities for abuse and error," Laurie said.

"Fighting crime should not really be a game and this is essentially no more than a commercial venture, exploiting some people's baser characteristics," he added.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) was unavailable for comments.

Britain is one of the world's most monitored societies, with one camera per fourteen people. However, in August, an internal report by the Metropolitan Police disclosed that just one crime was being solved for every thousand of London's estimated one million surveillance cameras.