Some time ago news came forth that London’s ever pervasive closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras weren’t working out so well. The bottom line is CCTV cameras were only able to solve one crime for every 1,000 cameras which put the cost of solving those few crimes at roughly £20,000 each.
If you have an overly expensive technology that’s proven ineffective what would you do? Well if it were either you or me making the decision we’d likely stop further development on the technology, dump it, and find something more effective. Unfortunately for the citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) their government isn’t us and therefore are going to spend more money on trying harder with CCTV cameras:
CCTV that can automatically monitor criminal behaviour and track suspects is being developed by UK scientists.
Researchers at Kingston University have created a system that uses artificial intelligence to recognise specific types of behaviour, such as someone holding a gun.
The technology is capable of following a person across multiple cameras.
The motto of government is, “If something isn’t working for you try again only harder.” I’m still waiting for the day when the UK government decides to put cameras into the homes of every citizen under its rule.