TV surveillance in Sweden

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33189, 31 March 1973, Page 5

TV surveillance in Sweden

(By

JOHN CHADWICK,

N.Z.P.A.-Reuter correspondent)

a STOCKHOLM. I e Hidden eyes watch j every movement in e Stockholms main '■ squares and railway) ' stations. 3 A network of 75 swivelling’ t television cameras linked to - police control centres is Swe-| ’> den’s newest way of fighting! .’crime and violence in the I .I streets. i The cameras, worked by’ -[remote control, are seen by’ - the authorities as an effective new weapon and a means ofj cutting police costs. But to some people, the] r camera network has brought! a Sweden a step nearer the; s fictional “Big Brother” world' a of 1984. i. The liberal newspaper, s “Dagens Nyheter,” said re-1 e cently that the 5.5 million r Kronor (about SNZ9SO,OOO)| d television surveillance system a was set up without the full! ■- knowledge of Parliament. e The police bought the; equipment out of funds rou-i P tinely allocated for the pur-. e chase of vehicles, the paper said. “Parliament did not’ ” know the money was going D to be used for television sur-l ? veillance.” 1 In the basement of Stock-; ° holm’s central station and | two other centres, police sit! I day and night and monitor; - the small numbered screens. I At any sign of a fracas or a gathering crowd, police! squads can immediately be| dispatched by radio to the! scene.

When Sweden’s political activists were holding their big Vietnam rallies recently, the whole scene in Stockholm’s main square was under surveillance from cameras perched on the new Parliament building. Others are fitted outside entrances to subway stations and similar favourite haunts of black marketeers, petty criminals and dope-pushers. From another control centre, the traffic police keep a close eye on Stockholm’s 15 busiest intersections and danger spots. Inspector Sten Grankvist, who is in charge of the underground station network, said: “We are.not just sitting here to find out what Mr and Mrs Smith are doing. We don’t have time. It’s a fulltime job just monitoring all the screens.” The cameras had been put to good use. "If someone should fall on the track or try to break into one of the slot machines we can get on to it quickly,” he said. Screen monitoring goes about 18 hours a day, ending at three o’clock in the morning. The controllers can swivel the cameras and zoom in on possible trouble-makers. And, if necessary, an incident can be preserved on film and. if police officials decide, produced as evidence. The authorities reject suggestions that Sweden is moving towards a police state by using such surveillance methods. The police say that the system has made their work easier and cut down trouble-making. One police officer agreed it

I was possible for such a system to be misused. “But lit could only happen under 'quite another system of government,” he said. The use of electronic surveillance, however, still worries some people in Sweden. This was illustrated recently when the Students' ! Union protested at the dis-

covery of a hidden microphone at a State school. The principal said that he was only trying to find out who was damaging school installations. But the union said that these were “totalitarian” methods which should not be permitted at educational establishments.