This week saw the announcement of another way in which technology is to be harnessed for the public good. As the BBC reports, the UK's already ubiquitous CCTV coverage is to be augmented in 20 areas by a system which will permit audio messages to be relayed via loud speakers.
The idea is that malefactors can be shouted at at the point of offending, and so will be prevailed upon to desist, make good their transgression and mend their ways. (The BBC article has a depressing illustration of how the process is intended to work.)
In an exquisite piece of (presumably unwitting) self-revelation, Home Secretary John Reid pre-emptively rubbished the criticism he felt would be coming from "...the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions".
Undoubtedly there will be some people who will behave as desired - those who are essentially law-abiding and decent anyway. The real yobs will surely be no more inclined to comply than they would be if approached by a uniformed PC (unlikely, but just go with me on this), and indeed will greet the addition of a commentary on their behaviour as welcome confirmation that they actually have an audience. They are hardly likely to show their faces, even if they believe any sanction is likely.
Loud speakers declaiming "what naughty boys" the hoodies are, and that the watching (police ? environmental health ? community outreach ?) officers "won't tell them again", are surely more likely to aggravate than abate public disorder in their immediate vicinity. Ordinary citizens on the other hand will see no benefit, and will feel an even more profound sense of being under surveillance.
As they become magnets for misbehaviour, what will the speakers be for? They won't be dismantled - that would be an admission of failure. Rather, they will become channels for worthy and improving public messages, exhorting passers-by to "eat your five a day" or "wave if you've reduced your carbon footprint".
If North Korea allowed its citizens to travel, they'd feel right at home.
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