CCTV was used instituted by Siemens AG at Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of V-2 rockets according to Wikipedia. After the defeat of Nazi Germany the technology was adopted by the West to protect military and security installations. In 1973 the NYPD installed several cameras in Times Square to combat crime.

In the 90s police departments expanded CCTV surveillance, however nowhere took to the Big Brotherism like Orwell’s England. # 1 was in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. The present number stands at 4.2 million or one for every 14 people in the Britain. Surveillance cameras blankets the country’s schools, street, hospitals, prisons, sidewalks, sports venue, bars, and highways, so that a British citizen appears on TV up to 300 times a day, which the BBC reported earned the UK the dubious dishonor of being the most surveilled nation in the West.

Advocates of CCTV claim that these cameras prevent crime, but there are other factors to be considered for the drop in car thefts and robberies i.e. the rising age of the population, better lighting, and a repressive political order.

Most people do nothing wrong, however their guilt or innocence is determined by police watchers.

On July 22, 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station, who feared he was carrying a bomb. He had nothing in his bag and according to brother Giovani Menezes, “The film showed that Jean did not have suspicious behavior”.

Opps.

CCTV can prove innocence as well as guilt, but never to a legal system which regards its citizens as the enemy.