-Caveat Lector-
Trial by CCTV claims innocent victim
By: Kieren McCarthy
Posted: 19/04/2001 at 16:38 GMT
It may sound like a fictional short story but Allan Dunne was filmed,
featured on TV as a criminal, arrested and questioned when he turned up to a
police station to explain, suspended and threatened with the sack, all
within two days and all thanks to modern CCTV surveillance technology.
His crime? To take £20 out of his own account from a cash machine.
Allan was caught on CCTV making the withdrawn soon after a thief had used
the cashpoint with a stolen card. Undercover police assumed him to be an
accomplice and released the footage they had of him to Granada TV's
Crimefile programme. This went out on TV the next day, the Daily Mail
reports.
Allan immediately went to a police station with records of his bank account
to explain the error but was arrested and questioned. He was eventually
bailed and told to return in a month. Subsequently, his bosses suspended
him.
When he finally managed to get the truth of the matter across, Greater
Manchester Police suddenly changed tack and apologised unreservedly. Mr
Dunne can have his job back but he has yet to return because he says he's
stressed out and people in the street will think he's a criminal. And can
you blame him?
The fact is that Allan has every right to sue not only the police but also
Granada for showing the programme. And the fact remains that this would
never have happened and would never have gone so far had it not been for the
false confidence that people have in this surveillance technology.
Just last weekend, a long feature in the Sunday Times went into this very
scenario of innocent people being caught up in a web because data is
accumulated so fast that people automatically assume guilt.
As you may know, the UK is currently the most monitored place in the entire
world. There isn't a street in London where you can't be picked up on CCTV
cameras. The rest of the country is much the same. ®
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