Transport and city centre CCTV to be big in 2007

Dr Ken Sutherland of Telindus Surveillance Solutions believes that, despite some public fears over the growth of a 'surveillance society', 2007 will see the continued increase of surveillance use worldwide.

"We will see the amount of surveillance deployed on public transport escalate, not only for anti-terrorism purposes, but for the public's peace of mind,"he said.

In recent years, terrorist attacks on both the tube and aeroplanes provoked a decline in the public's confidence. In an attempt to regain the public's trust and encourage them to continue using public transport, organisations are employing surveillance technology – the more visible the surveillance is, the safer the public feel.

"Surveillance technology on transportation systems can also significantly improve the 'uptime' of services if an incident does occur.

“The quicker an airport, tube station, train station or bus service can be up and running following an event, the better. The more effective the surveillance technology, the quicker the emergency services can decipher what, where and why an incident has occurred and they can respond accordingly."

He believes interest in city centre surveillance will also be mirrored globally as people become increasingly concerned with either deterring criminal activity or capturing it on camera so that the images can be used as evidence.

"It is just a matter of time before transmitting video images to hand-held PDAs becomes more widespread, and the sight of security forces across the UK carrying PDAs will become normality," he said.

• The BSIA is also predicting a good year for transport security.

Technical director Alex Carmichael said: "The falling cost and increasing sophistication of security technology is creating huge potential both in terms of crime prevention and customer services.”