CCTV

CCTV  (Mass surveillance/Technology)
A protest image from http://no-cctv.org.uk/

CCTV, (Closed-circuit television) provides (and generally records) live video footage of public or private spaces. This is a potentially welcome development as regards hampering the fabrication of mendacious official narratives. However, most (if not all?) national governments have failed to address the legal aspect of this, with the result that CCTV footage of "terrorist" events is persistently unavailable or lost.

Official narrative

CCTV is originally about monitoring people for their own sake. Honest and law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from its increasingly universal adoption by authorities. Crime prevention is a key driver behind the implementation of CCTV cameras.

Problems

The "the total failure of CCTV to deter people from committing crimes in the first place" has not deterred the ever wider deployment of CCTV, suggesting that other motives might be driving this technological roll out. Westminster Council commented that "there is only "limited evidence" fixed CCTV cameras prevent crime and disorder."

Tony Porter stated that as regards UK CCTV usage, "there is a gap between what exists and what should exist." In 2015, he opined that less than 2% of UK public authorities were operating CCTV cameras in compliance with "any British standard".

A 2008 mural by Banksy. Westminster City Council later ordered its removal.

Control of access to CCTV footage

CCTV evidence, although it could be made publicly available, for example, by being live streamed to the internet, is generally under the control of the few who set up the systems. Even where these are public authorities, spending public money and nominally acting for the good of the public, because it is controlled by a central authority, footage tends to remain under tight control, only released on an ad hoc basis when it suits the interests of those who set up the cameras.

Hackability

In January 2017, two hackers were reportedly arrested in London on suspicion of hacking 70% of the CCTV cameras in Washington.

Secrecy of camera locations

In 2016 a federal judge blocked the disclosure of where the FBI has attached surveillance cams on Seattle utility poles.

'Unavailable' CCTV footage

The widespread use of CCTV could provide valuable evidence in the case of acts of "terrorism", though it is more notable for is absence in this respect. Specifically, in the following instances:

• 1995: Oklahoma City bombing - In response to a suit by Jesse Trentadue, the US government gave up 26 tapes, but they all have parts of the footage missing between 8:54am and 9:02am, ostensibly because the tapes were being changed at this time. These do not include the CCTV of the Murrah building; in response to a FOIA request, the FBI claims to have lost the tapes of the Murrah building, although Trentadue claims that an anonymous source told him that he had seen that video.
• 2005: 7 July 2005 London bombings - Verint systems took control of London Transport's CCTV 10 months before the attacks, and have never released any footage, claiming that none of the relevant cameras were working. Footage from mainline station CCTV cameras was released, 3 years after the event. In the inquest into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, the jury was shown some footage of Jean Charles de Menezes from one bus camera. However, Steve Reynolds, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, stated that excessive vibrations on the bus meant that other cameras were not working. He also claimed that a workman had stepped on a cable at Stockwell Tube station, preventing recording of any the cameras on platform two, and that no footage was available from the underground train in de Menezes he was killed because the recording unit had been removed as part of the inquiry into the July 7 attacks.

'Sealed' CCTV footage

• 1997: Diana Princess of Wales/Death - No CCTV footage of the crash has been made available. It is unclear whether any exists.
• 2001: 9-11/Pentagon - The FBI confiscated all CCTV footage from nearby cameras for reasons of "National security", arriving at a nearby gas station "within minutes". Of the Pentagon's (presumably many) CCTV cameras, footage from only a single camera has been released^[When?] - and that is missing a crucial frame.
• 2009: Underwear bombing - Two eyewitnesses report that the alleged perpetrator was allowed on the plane without a passport, after intervention by a handler. Dutch CCTV footage of the event was sealed by US judge, unshown to the public.
• 2016: Le Monde reported on 22 July 2016, after the Nice truck event a judge ordered that all recordings for 18 hours before the attack, on 1256 CCTV cameras in Nice be erased before being shown to anyone. The mayor refused to grant this demand but it is unknown whether footage was made public.
• 2017: As of December 2017, the FBI had not released any CCTV of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.

Incorrect footage

CNN aired CCTV which it claimed were of the 2016 Mass murder in Brussels, but which were of a different incident.

Rating

26 April 2022 Robin  A very useful collection of pointers to the deceitful ways in which CCTV is used
A very short page, but one with many links to deep events in which CCTV footage was unavailable, lost or falsified.

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