UK: CCTV website recruits video vigilantes
By joshuah at 6 October, 2009, 6:54 am
A new web service aims to recruit tens of thousands of unpaid watchmen to monitor neglected CCTV cameras nationwide.
Internet Eyes, a start up based in Stratford-upon-Avon, plans to charge businesses £20 per month for members of its website to watch live camera feeds and report incidents via text message.
In return, the members will be entered into a crime-fighting league, receiving points for each genuine incident reported. At the end of each month the top scorer will receive a £1,000 cash reward.
“It’s not a game. We’re fighting crime and terrorism,” Tony Morgan, the businessman behind the idea told The Register*.
The service launches next month in its home town. Morgan then plans to quickly expand to cover “as many cameras as possible” nationally.
As an inspiration he cites recent Metropolitan Police figures showing that fewer than one crime is solved for every 1,000 CCTV cameras deployed in London. “There’s 4.2 million CCTV cameras in this country and nobody watches them,” he said.
Source/Full Story: The Register
Technorati Tags: CCTV, Internet Eyes
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