Security News, Publishing, Products and more...

Editors Blog

Welcome to the Editor’s Blog, this is a place for me, Tom Reeve to blog editorial content.

CCTV cameras regulated as Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 receives Royal assent

May 4, 2012

iStock - CCTV cameras

The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 received Royal Assent this week, passing into law regulations around the use and disposal of forensic data including biometrics, fingerprints, DNA and other materials, as well as the regulation …

Big Brother Watch gets its facts and FOIA requests wrong

March 20, 2012

CCTV-cameras-in-the-UK-190x124

In its latest report, anti-camera pressure group Big Brother Watch got its figures badly wrong when it claimed that councils spent £515m on CCTV in the past four years.

FBI video explains how to set up and use a CCTV video surveillance system

March 13, 2012

FBI-caught-on-camera-how-to-use-cctv-video-surveillance

You can bang on about image quality, system set up and user training until you’re blue in the face, but leave it to the Americans to produce a lavish video to get the message across.

UAV video surveillance drones prepped for take-off

February 3, 2012

UAV-drone-aerial-video-surveillance

Drones – or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – may soon be filling our skies, engaged in myriad video surveillance tasks

Editor’s view: Two-speed brains explain CCTV blindness

January 30, 2012

Brain researchers have discovered that if you can’t find something, like your keys, it might be because two parts of your brain are out of sync with each other.
Quite simply, the area of your brain …

Editor’s view: Changing terrorist threat can be met with CCTV surveillance

January 25, 2012

Despite the successes in 2011 against international terrorism, there’s a new wave building in 2012. That’s according to the director general of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
Professor Michael Clarke says that having decapitated al …

Editor’s view: Crime survey indicates need for more and better CCTV

January 19, 2012

The news from the British Crime Survey is generally good. There was a time when the BCS report was hailed as an opportunity to chide the police for failing to record crime statistics properly but …

Editor’s view: Report highlights need for imaginative assessment of risk and consequences

January 18, 2012

“HILP events” may sound like jargon or academic speak, but it encapsulates an important security concept: in addition to planning for the ordinary, you must also take account of the extraordinary.
In its report, Preparing for …

Editor’s blog: London Mayor should set radical new business-policing agenda

January 17, 2012

Riot suspects on CCTV

London police have a new boss: the Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Question is, now that he’s got it, what’s he going to do differently from the Metropolitan Policing Authority to really change policing in …