Internet Eyes: Make Money Watching CCTV Crimes On The Web
VOYEURS, journalists, the institutionalised looking to fill the void between episodes of Jeremy Kyle can win £1,000 by joining the Citizen Crimewatchers whose job it is to monitoring CCTV security cameras over the internet.
Camera owners need you to keep a vigil on their streaming home movies. And the best bit is that these camera owners will pay you a wage to watch the footage.
Britain has 4.2 million security cameras, and only 60million people to man them. Internet Eyes will crackle into life in Stratford-upon-Avon but very soon you too will be able to register for free and watch four cameras, winning a prize for every crime spotted.
Tony Morgan, who set up the site, tells us:
“This could turn out to be the best crime prevention weapon there’s ever been. I wanted to combine the serious business of stopping crime with the incentive of winning money. There are over four million CCTV cameras and only one in a thousand is watched. This way cameras will be watched 24 hours a day.”
It’s ingenious. The Internet requires no TV licence and ITV must be kicking themselves they never thought this one up. A CCTV camera by Katie’ Price’s driveway could get its own series on ITV1, ITV2 with repeats on ITV 3 and the behind the lens technical report show on ITV4.
Here’s how it works:
1. Sit at a monitor
2. Watch monitor
3. Turn monitor on
4. See suspicious activity seen by a camera angled a bin or car park. Press button to alert camera owner.
5. Get one point for a suspected crime and three for an actual crime. Points make prizes. If the crime is neither a crime nor a suspected crime, lose one point.
Charles Farrier, the director of the pressure group No CCTV, is unsure:
“What if a group of racists decide to send alerts every time a black person is seen on screen, and what’s stopping criminals using the cameras to scope out where to commit crimes?”
Why a black person? Can’t black people be snooping racists too? Equality is all.
Anorak thinks the idea cannot fail, and will be a hit with criminals keen to know which cameras are unnamed and which are being watched by their associates. Not only do they get to commit the crime but they earn money for reporting it. Win. Win.
Camera owners can advertise the fact that their cameras are not manned on the company’s website…
Posted: 6th, October 2009 | In: Technology Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
