Britain’s first ‘talking’ CCTV cameras have arrived, well, CCTV cameras with loudspeakers next to them. The system allows control room operators who spot any illegal behavior to send out a verbal warning to the offender. Middlesbrough has fitted loudspeakers on seven of its 158 cameras in an experiment already being hailed as a success.

“There was one incident when two men started fighting outside a nightclub. One of the control room operators warned them over the loudspeakers and they looked up, startled, stopped fighting and scarpered in opposite directions.”

Operators instructions are permitted to say such things as: ‘Warning - you are being monitored by CCTV - Warning - you are in an alcohol-free zone, please refrain from drinking’; and Warning - your behaviour is being monitored by CCTV. It is being recorded and the police are attending.’

It would appear that the offenders are the only ones who find the audio cameras intrusive. The vast majority of people welcome these cameras. “Orwell’s 1984 was a dire warning to ward off the totalitarianism of public monitoring authorities. This camera/speaker system is not ‘like’ Big Brother, it ‘is’ Big Brother incarnate,” says one American from Boston. Via Daily Mail