hannah+egg

Advocates of video surveillance say it has contributed to a long-term decline
in other crimes in Britain. Car thieves, in particular, seem deterred by
the prevalence of cameras on lampposts. But Dr. Murakami Wood noted the incidence of
violent crime actually slightly last year.
監視器的擁護者宣稱監視器有助長期改善英國的犯罪問題，路燈上普遍裝設錄影機，對偷車賊似乎特別有
嚇阻效果。但是伍德博士也指出，去年英國的暴力事件事實上是稍微增加了。

Just as video surveillance dose not prevent many crimes, it also apparently has less of
an effort on ordinary human behavior than some critics feared it would
when Britain began installing the cameras in earnest after a pair of Irish Republican Army
bombings in 1993 and 1994.
正如監視器沒有防止多少案件，顯然地它對一般人行為上的影響也不及評論家所擔心的那樣，
他們所擔心的是類似1993與1994年那兩起愛爾蘭共和軍爆炸案，在那之後英國才開始廣設攝影機。

"There was a debate about whether is would deter normal people from doing things
in public places," Dr. Murakami Wood said. "But it hasn't induced conformity,
like some predicted.
伍德博士說：「人們爭議著監視器是否阻礙了一般民眾在公共場合做事，但至目前為止，
就如某些人所說過的，人們在此議題上並沒有達成共識。」

That is good news to people like him, who worry about the erosion of privacy
for the average subway rider, not to mention for couples fancying a late-night tryst
in the street outside a pub. But for those who see the social benefits in CCTV monitoring,
the notion that people are becoming inured to the camera's gaze is worrisome.
對那些像他一樣擔心地鐵乘客隱私被侵犯的人來說，這真是個好消息。要不是因為看到了
監視器的社會的助益，要人們去習慣被鏡頭偷窺的想法真是教人傷腦筋。

The authorities have recently begun equipping some cameras with loud-speakers,
which allow human monitors to admonish people caught littering or brawling in the street.
The theory is that "shouting cameras" are harder to ingone. But critics say
they cross the line from crime prevention into public bullying.
當局近來開始在部分監視器上加裝擴音器，讓監控者得以警告在大街上亂丟垃圾或製造噪音的人。
這是基於會叫的監視器更有威嚇效果，但有人說這已經從犯罪防治逾矩到公然霸凌了。

There are questions about who is doing the monitoring -- a problem both of skills
and manpower, given the reams of videotape that the police must review
in the aftermath of crimes.
問題是，是誰在監視？這牽涉到技術與權力，這也使得警方必須從大量的錄影帶中尋找犯罪後果。

Still, in the perennial tug of war between security and privacy, security appears
to be winning. The next wave in CCTV, experts say, is to marry traditional surveillance
with computer software to make cameras better at detecting suspicious behavior
that can be the precursor to a crime.
再者，在安全與隱私的長期拉扯下，安全考量明顯占了上風。專家指出，CCTV的下一波改革是要將
傳統監視器材與電腦軟體結合，以更適切於偵測嫌犯行為，這樣就能預測案件的發生。

More advanced applications include cameras that can be programmed to search for
specific objects -- say, an unattended bag in a subway station -- or for people
with suspisious mannerisms. Cameras that recognize facial characterastic are also
being developed, though their affectiveness has been hampered by the unpredictable
lighting in outdoor spaces.
包含監視器在內，許多先進設備可以設計成具有尋找特殊物件的功能，在地鐵站的一個
非隨身的包包，或者某個符合嫌犯癖好的人。監視器正發展辨識臉部特徵的功能，
但是人們的面部表情仍會被譬戶外無法預測的光線所妨礙。

"Some people are looking very hard at suicide bombers," said Peter Fry, director of
the CCTV User Group, a trade association. "You can possibly pick up mannerisms,
facial tics and so on. If that works, it would be a tremendous help in cases like these."
「有些人看起來就是不像自殺炸彈客」，CCTV使用者協會總裁弗萊說：「也許你可以找到某些
特殊習慣，或者臉上的抽慉等等，要是真的有用，那麼就會對這些案件有極大的幫助。

The problem, of course, is that the profile of a would-be suicied bomber keeps changing,
which may account for why the most dramatic images from the attack in June came
only after an Iraqi doctor rammed a Jeep into an airport terminal in Glasgow
and set it ablaze.
當然，問題是，那些看起來像自殺炸彈客的人是一直在變的，這說明了為何在六月開著吉普車
衝入機場跑道並且引爆的畫面上，出現的都是伊拉克醫生。

(The End)