WARSAW – Big Brother is watching you in many Polish cities in the form of closed-circuit TV cameras trained on streets and squares, student residences, lecture theatres and school corridors.
Public disquiet over these more or less unseen eyes is muted, as Poles tend to be more frightened of crime than they are concern about the invasion of their privacy.By the end of April, the network will be extended in Cracow in the south of the country, where 31 video cameras will monitor the Miasteczko Akademickie, the student quarter with its 10,000 residents.This mining and steel industry college believes the expenditure of 600,000 zloty (almost 150,000 dollars) is justified by the theft, muggings and vandalism that have alarmed the campus.“This is not about monitoring the students, but about increased security,” deputy rector Bronislaw Barchanski says.The college is one of several in the university city that has taken this step, along with several schools.Parents have been at the forefront of campaigns to banish drug dealing and protection rackets from schools by means of the cameras, which often operate in tandem with private security officials patrolling the campuses.Mariusz Graniczka, head of a senior school in the centre of Cracow believes his investment of 16,000 zloty in CCTV has been justified.“There are no more broken windows and the pupils behave better because they know they are being watched,” he wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza.There has been little opposition from the pupils. “I don’t feel under control,” says Kasia, a 17-year-old pupil.“After all, I’m not involved in extorting money from others, in dealing drugs or stealing. CCTV systems should be set up in every school,” she says.Magda, 14, is most concerned about feeling watched as she kisses her boyfriend in the school grounds.Trainee technician Zbigniew is more sceptical about the surveillance cameras in the student quarter. “One begins to feel a bit like a puppet,” he says.His friend Kamil is unconcerned. “The main thing is that it’s safer,” he says, echoing the concerns of many of his countrymen.In Warsaw and other cities, estate agents use the magic word “monitoring” and highlight the use of private security firms when they advertise luxury apartments for sale or rent.The police and local authorities are enthusiastic supporters of surveillance in public areas.In the port city of Gdansk 16 cameras have been set up in the old town, where pickpockets and muggers have targetted foreign tourists.Whether in the major tourist centres or in small towns, the indications are that the cameras are a powerful deterrent against pickpockets, car thieves and smugglers.In Radom in the centre of the country, incidence of crime at certain hotspots has declined by half, and video evidence has helped to convict street criminals.Police have been forced to concede, however, that criminals have adapted to the new conditions and are continuing their activities in areas not yet under CCTV surveillance.
