Cameras Catch Dry Run of 7/7 London Terrorists
Score one for security cameras:
Newly released CCTV footage shows the 7 July London bombers staged a practice run nine days before the attack.
Detectives reconstructed the bombers’ movements after studying thousands of hours of film as part of the probe into the blasts which killed 52 people.
CCTV images show three of the bombers entering Luton station, before travelling to King’s Cross station where they are also pictured.
Officers are keen to find out if the men met anyone else on the day.
See also The New York Times.
Security cameras certainly aren’t useless. I just don’t think they’re worth it.
Davi Ottenheimer • September 21, 2005 2:06 PM
I knew you’d come around eventually. 😉
Cameras provide better intelligence info if deployed and managed properly. Most critiques of the cameras are (rightly) directed at poor planning, poor management, and/or poor handling of the data.
One of the critical issues with the British system is that the police do not recieve any special training to analyze the camera data, and lack the newer technology that makes the job significantly easier (e.g. real-time analysis). Learning on the job is great for some things, but it obviously puts a “surveillance” system at a huge disadvantage if time is of the essence.
Moreover, the camera network in Britain appears to be a patchwork of technologies that requires a great deal of external (human) cooperation/communication, and perhaps even legal support, to tie together data.
As camera technology rapidly evolves to provide superior intelligence capabilities, agencies need to get much better at how they address issues related to deployment and management of the controls, as well as proper access and handling of the subsequent data.