Pause for Thought - 21 September 2006
CCTV Talkback
If you’re passing through Middlesbrough town centre and you drop your rubbish on the pavement you could hear voices telling you to pick it up.
And the voices won’t be God or even your guardian angel. It’ll be security officers on CCTV watching what people are getting up to.
Not a hint here that people in Middlesbrough are any naughtier than the rest of us! It’s just that the council is carrying out an experiment. The idea is to see if this new approach improves community standards, and cuts down on anti-social behaviour.
Well, the experiment has had mixed responses. Some people said it was too much like Big Brother. Others said they didn’t mind as they had absolutely nothing to hide.
In a few months time they’ll let us know the results. And it will be rather interesting to see what they come up with.
Will being watched really make a difference to people’s behaviour? And what’s new anyway? Most of us know that behind the shady one way mirrors in airports and the local supermarket, security guards sip cups of tea and watch where our hands go.
The difference with the Middlesbrough experiment is that you won’t be allowed to wonder off thinking that your behaviour doesn’t matter, because someone will tell you!
Which is really what our conscience does all the time anyway. It’s just that usually no one else hears.
So maybe the real point of the exercise isn’t just having your behaviour bellowed across the pavement: it’s the fact that other people will get to hear about what you’ve done.
It turns out that the thing God put inside us called our ‘conscience’ is really quite powerful. For if we care to listen, it’s always telling us things about ourselves and our response to those around us. And if we listen really carefully, it’s likely to be far more constructive than the average CCTV with a voice.
For it doesn’t want to tell us to pick up our rubbish. It tells us not to drop it in the first place.
Joel Edwards, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance
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