So I was doing my laundry a week or so ago, and sat waiting for the washing machine to come to the end of its seemingly infinite cycle I idly took a look upwards and saw the strangest thing. Two additional “fixtures” had been installed on the roof of the laundry room. As a fairly logical guy, I slowly pondered their purpose. I have seen fittings like this before, and they were in an ancient Maplin catalogue under the safety section – Carbon Monoxide detectors that can be rigged in to a normal fire alarm. This makes sense, because the dryers in that room are old-style gas powered things that could cook your Xmas turkey (and tenderise it a bit in the process). Then I thought – two? Bit excessive.
Then I noticed something that put me off the CO detector idea completely – a glint of AR coating. That bluey-purpley glinting of anti-reflective coating they put on lenses.
After returning to my room with a bag full of neatly folded and super-statically-charged laundry I thought I’d have a Google… And here’s what I came up with:
http://www.visiontechnologyltd.co.uk/product_details.asp?ProductID=4
Swines. That is unmistakably the same as the ones stuck on the ceiling. The screw positions, the gauze, the positioning of the camera. There are no signs, there were no letters posted, no emails sent.
While I’m understanding of the need for surveillance in many situations, I think this kind of covert, secret-camera channel-four documentary style stuff has no place in an environment where people are supposed to live with and trust one another. If they’d gone for a normal dome-shaped dealy with a little sign in the corner that says “Remember, CCTV operates in this area for the protection of all residents and their property” I’d be perfectly happy. It’s not that anybody would be getting changed in there, or would want any privacy at all really; but the “If you’ve not got anything to hide…” argument just doesn’t cut it with me at all. If people have things to hide, they’re not going to do it in front of a clearly visible CCTV camera are they? CCTV should be 90% a deterrent and 10% an investigation tool.