toxin du jour tour

Welcome to the unofficial tour “CCTV are you talking to me?”


All that will be said in this tour is common knowledge, certified by Wikipedia.


There are many towns around the world named Bristol, most of them across the United States of America, but only here, one can find around one million CCTV’s, almost two for each individual. These can be found everywhere: banks, shopping malls, convenience stores, private entrances, and in public space.

There are 5 talking CCTV on trial in Bristol City Centre. 2 at Centre Promenade, one facing St. Augustine’s Parade, the other in the corner with Baldwin’s street; 1 at Corn Street, another at Nelsons street, and this one right in front of us.

These are hight tech closed circuit tv cameras with loud speakers attached.
From a control room operators can issue instructions or warnings to the passers-by.

These warning are transmitted if someone is causing antisocial behavior or offending in some way.
Meaning that if one engages in any of these behaviors: litter, theft, begging, flyposting, vandalism, urinating in public, aggressive behavior, cycling in pavements will be warned not to.

It can also be used to address people in times of emergency, for example terrorist threat or evacuation required...
This equipment, which is operated by staff at Bristol City Council's control room, not by the police, cannot hear anything said by a member of the public in the area.

Still Microphones were fitted next to CCTV cameras on the excuse to control urban noise.
So can they hear what I am saying? NO! Or Not Yet! Or actually, the microphones are already in position, just not switched on.
What is exactly a CCTV?





CCTV or Closed Circuit Television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific, limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast tv in that the signal is not openly transmitted, meaning is intended for only a limited number of viewers.





The first ever to be installed was at Siemens AG Germany in 1942 to survey the launching of military rockets.
Today it has been developed to the point where it is simple and inexpensive enough to be used in home security systems and for surveillance.






Uk has over 24 million CCTV’s operating. It is the most surveyed country among the industrialized western countries

We could then call it masssurveillance.
Which is the surveillance of an entire population with or without consent, serving or not their interests. It can just be the monitoring of population for virus control – epidemiology.
It can also be carried out by commercial organizations. Many people are willing to join loyalty card programs, trading their personal information and surveillance of their shopping habits in Exchange for a discount on their groceries. Or just for commodity or not having to wait on lines at the airport.



So its primary use is to stop, prevent crime, mainly robbery, but also thefts and to surveill employees…
Still there is virtually no evidence that CCTV deters crime, deterrence is not among the motives to have a CCTV. It can solve crimes, meaning, it can be used for detection and prosecution, but not to prevent. Some reports concluded that better street lighting was seven times more effective than CCTV at cutting crime.



these are some of the things said during the tour....