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Doktor Jon's Comments | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A splash of colour cameras - Following the launch of a high profile christmas anti graffiti campaign by the British Transport Police, embarassed officials have had to acknowledge they may have got it wrong. In an audacious 'guerrilla" style attack on the London Underground, Camden Town station was targetted by graffiti vandals on Christmas day, causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage. The vandals attacked platforms, noticeboards, and .... cctv cameras - source Camden New Journal- 28th Dec 2006 - DJ Comments
Expecting the worst, the British Transport Police very publicly launched an anti graffiti initiative in the run up to christmas, hoping that for this year unlike previous, the threat of a heightened police presence would deter the 'artists' from attacking the infrastructure. It's quite possible that as senior police officers sat down to their christmas lunch, quietly congratulating themselves on the success of their campaign, hooded individuals were at the same time running amok in one of Londons key stations, tagging everything they could in a spree that is believed to have lasted for many hours. Whilst the inevitable post mortem will focus on how so many managed to get into the locked station, the favoured theory at the moment being that they simply walked up the tunnel along the tracks, it does raise a couple of fairly obvious issues for consideration. Now if we consider that the London Underground is the most CCTV surveyed public transport service in the world, with most stations sporting dozens, if not in some cases hundreds of all seeing surveillance cameras, why were they not spotted when they first entered the station? More worryingly perhaps, on a network that suffered such a devastating terrorist attack on July 7th 2005, why has nothing been said publicly about such a preventable vulnerability in the security of the system. If instead of spraying "Merry Xmas BTP" as a direct insult to the transit Police, they had instead been mindful to plant explosive devices, the chances are nobody would have been any the wiser, until such time as the detonations took place. This and many previous incidents which are frequently televised on news programmes, only serve to highlight the glaring inadequacies in what should be cutting edge security. If a bunch of guys with spray cans can commit this amount of damage unchallenged, then the inescapable fact is that the system is not adequately secured. Unless lessons are learned and learnt fast, then the possible implications don't even bear thinking about. FOOTNOTE:- In a tragic twist to this story, barely three weeks after the graffiti attacks on Christmas Day, another gang were disturbed by a security guard at an Underground train depot in East London, and two males, aged 19 and 21 were killed when they ran into the path of a moving train. Two other members of the gang were later arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
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