Lampposts in the 21st Century
Lampposts are a familiar part of the "street furniture" in the mostly urban environment of the United Kingdom. However, in the 21st century, there seem to be a few technological changes afoot. In other countries, notably on Scandanavia, there is a move towards lampposts which are designed to buckle and absorb the impact energy of any vehicles which hit them, reducing deaths and injuries. Various suppliers are now starting to offer Light Emitting Diode streetlighting which is as energy efficient as conventional incandescent or fluorescent or sodium vapour lightbulbs, but which lasts many times longer, thereby reducing the maintenance costs, and therefore the overall annual running costs.
However, in the United Kingdom, public sector technology innovations for the humble lamppost eschew vehicle safety or energy conservation, they seeem to be far more interested in extending the matrix of mass surveillance systems.
The Guardian seems to have picked up a recent report in the London Evening Standard, about Westminster Council's new noise pollution monitoring system.
This piggybacks on the Wireless City infrastructure of WiFi CCTV cameras attached to lampposts, first unveiled in and around Soho Square over a year ago. at the time the Westminster Council press releases talked of CCTV cameras, car parking warden handheld computer communications, allegedly cheap "WiFi phone" communications for council staff, and "environmental monitoring".
"Environmental monitoring" was assumed to be air pollution monitoring, but apparently it also involves the much more targeted surveilleance of individual premises suspected of breaching the noise pollution rules. Note the scaremongering headlines in the media, which, by using the word microphones give the impression that actual converstions are at risk of being snooped on, rather than just the volume of noise being reported.
It is quite arrogant of the local government bureaucrats to assume that WiFi wireless local area network technology is somehow suitable for these purposes. Remember, that WiFi uses the Industrial Scientific Medical "licence free" radio spectrum allocation around 2.4GHz. This is not a monopoly for dedicated public authority purposes, anybody and everybody as entitled to make use of this radio frequency band as Westminster Council is, and ther can be no legal process for resolving any disputes about radio interference from other legal WiFi access points and devices, as well as passing Bluetooth equipped mobile phones (which also use the same frequencies, though with very different signal modulation and data protocols).
Lampposts are already set to be used by a competing data network which is being set up by the Department of Transport, which is notorious for its well honed procedures for supressing and nullifying any local protest groups. This National Roads Telecommunications Services Project also aims to sell fast internet access to commercial providers, but has the added danger to privvacy and possibly to public health of using data links between lammposts in the Millimetre Wave part of the spectrum as used by various "see through your children's clothes" or "snoop through the walls of your home or office" surveillance technologies.
Lampposts are also being used to hang Communist style slogan boxes, which use passive infrared motion detectors activate pointless and intrusive recorded announcements of official slogans at passing pedestrians. e.g. the Surrey Police "Remember to not to leave any valuables in your parked car" nonsense.
Comments
A correspondent points us to this local press report of a Local Councillor in Cleveland who seems to be clamouring for the same sort of Noise Monitoring and CCTV on lammpposts that is being tried out in Westminster.
http://icteesside.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0001head/tm_objectid=15500251%26method=full%26siteid=50080%26headline=now%2da%2dcall%2dfor%2dhidden%2dmikes-name_page.html
The same potential problems apply - Industrial Scientific Medical 2.4GHz band radio frequencies used by WiFi or portable CCTV cameras do NOT belong to the Council or the Police. Everybody is allowed to use them and there is *no* legal comeback for radio intereference, provided that the power limits are observed.
What is the point of wasting even more public money on CCTV and Noise monitoring surveillance against alleged nuisance neighbours ? How does this solve a social problem with a repressive use of technology ? Unless the technology is backled up withvery rapid human reponses, in th middle of the night, then there is no proper chance of encforcing the existing laws and regulations.
Putting expensive monitoring equipment on lammposts (which will be patenly obvious) to monitor nusisance neighbours will simply lead to vandalism and theft of that equipment.
As the Cleveland Council spokesman alludes to, Councils already use mobile covert surveillance cameras to convbat temporary problems such as graffitti, fly tipping and racial attacks or harassment.
There is simply no way of "covertly" installing such equipment hidden "inside" lampposts or other "street furniture", not all criminals and vandals are stupid.
Posted by: wtwu | May 10, 2005 10:18 PM
I hope DEFRA's Ambient Noise Mapping Strategy doesn't act as a pretext to place more microphones all over England.
Posted by: Rob | August 18, 2005 11:38 AM
I have noticed a lot of microwave masts going up on our town roads..............and wonder what they actually do AND WHAT FREQUENCIES..........
Posted by: botty | August 19, 2005 8:45 AM