ABSTRACT
“You’re on CCTV Surveillance” signs are everywhere these days. But these might soon be replaced by signs that say “Warning! You are entering an area which is NOT covered by CCTV!” So widespread is closed-circuit television (CCTV) coverage becoming, and so reliant are we now on the gaze of millions of electronic eyes, that we may soon start to treat the absence or collapse of CCTV systems with the sort of fear and anxiety with which we treat electricity cuts or the collapse of the telephone network. We might soon have a fear of unwatched spaces. CCTV, in short, looks set to become a fifth utility, to join electricity, gas, water, and telephone networks as ubiquitous infrastructures that we expect to cover all places and therefore largely take for granted.
