WALKING down the main street in the centre of Middlesbrough last Thursday morning, two teenage girls began ripping paper from a magazine and tossing it in the air with gay abandon.

They attracted little attention from pedestrians and shoppers. But somebody in a control room across town was watching them.

“You two girls have been witnessed on CCTV camera dropping litter. Pick it up and put it in the bin provided,” boomed a bossy Scottish voice from a nearby loudspeaker.

The shocked girls looked up at the camera high on a pole and quickly did as they had been ordered, before running off.

Such embarrassing warnings may soon become familiar in town centres. Later this month the Home Office is expected to announce a nationwide scheme to introduce “talking CCTV”.

They warn yobs and litterbugs they will be punished if they do not stop misbehaving. Those who disobey face arrest and fines.

The nationwide scheme follows the success of the trials in Middlesbrough, which began last July. Similar cameras will now be set up in towns and cities including Glasgow, Gloucester and Redditch in Worcestershire. The government has given Plymouth £20,000 to finance four cameras in the city centre.

The scheme has its critics, who believe it is a further step down the road to Britain becoming a “surveillance society”.

They point to the growing number of CCTV cameras and the development of new computer technology harnessed to them. In one application used in Holland and expected to be tri-alled in Britain, cameras attached to high-powered microphones scan conversations, which are then analysed for the warning signs of aggressive behaviour.

British academics are developing software that will automatically lipread silent CCTV footage and produce a printout of the conversation on demand.

In Middlesbrough, the control room operators are given strict guidelines about what comments they can make. Jack Bonner, the system’s manager, sits in front of a bank of 24 screens.

He said: “If someone drops litter, then you might say, ‘The gentleman in the dark-coloured suit, you are on CCTV and have been witnessed dropping litter. Kindly pick it up and put it in the bin provided to your left’; 98% of the time they look up at the camera in shock and do as you say.”

If they fail to comply, they are warned again. “The first is a request. Then the tone of voice changes and we make it a command,” said Bonner.

If they are still disobedient, they face further humiliation: a picture “grab” from the CCTV footage may be printed in the local newspaper. If identified, litterbugs can then be fined by the council environment officer.

Drunks and vandals are given a first warning before a “command” is issued saying the police are on their way. A number of arrests have been made in this way.

Yesterday morning The Sunday Times put the Middlesbrough system to the test. A reporter threw a newspaper onto the pavement outside a fast-food restaurant in Linthorpe Road.

A passer-by was quickest off the mark. “You’ll get locked up for that. They’ve got these cameras that tell you off,” she said.

Sure enough, a man’s voice boomed down: “Will the man in the woolly hat please pick up the paper?”

The reporter obliged and the voice said: “Thank you.”

The scheme is being financed by a Home Office section run by Louise Casey, the government’s “co-ordinator for respect”.

Casey visited Middlesbrough in November to see the cameras working and also tried the system for herself.

Since the trial began, speakers on eight cameras in Middlesbrough town centre have been “voice-activated” 156 times.

The project initially cost £39,000 to set up. An extra £20,000 from Casey’s taskforce will pay for 10 more cameras to be installed this month.

The cameras have a visual range of 250ft and can zoom in to identify faces. The volume can be changed, depending on the weather, and can be heard up to 150ft away.

Doug Jewell, campaigns co-ordinator of Liberty, warned: “This latest high-tech toy gives camera operators massive powers to invade the lives of ordinary people. Anyone intent on committing a crime will merely move on and do it elsewhere.”

Additional reporting: Graham Hind

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Computer warriors pay for far-away mercenaries
• Divorce rate falls to 26-year low
• Boris adviser says Olympians tainted with blood