In a bunker beneath the bustling streets of central London, guards monitor a grid of closed-circuit television.
The centre, at a secret location, is run by a private company in association with the police and local council.
Polls show broad public acceptance, even if the cameras more often capture a couple in loving embrace than a terrorist about to wreak havoc.
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Police say the average Briton is on as many as 300 cameras every day, usually unaware
Britain has more than 4 million closed-circuit security cameras, more than any other Western democracy.
Police say the average Briton is on as many as 300 cameras every day, usually unaware.
The density of surveillance is significantly higher than in any other Western democracy, says Jen Corlew, spokeswoman for Liberty, a London-based human rights group.
Britain has more than 4 million closed-circuit security cameras
"We are sleepwalking towards a Big Brother society, not in one fell swoop but by stages," warns The Spectator, a conservative magazine.
"There is no boot stamping on a face: just an ever more insistent foot in the door."
But the vast majority of 4,000 people surveyed in 2005 said they believed that tapping phones, ...   more »

WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) -- New Hampshire and Oklahoma have joined Montana and Washington in rejecting the U.S. government's 2005 Real ID Act.
The states passed statutes refusing to submit to the program, meaning driver's licenses issued by those states will eventually be disallowed as official identification to board airplanes and enter federal buildings, Stateline.org reported Friday.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Legislature refused to allocate any money to pay for the act and the Georgia Legislature gave Gov. Sonny Perdue the authority to ignore the act. Perdue's spokesman, Bert Brantley, said the governor is hoping the federal government will make the expensive program more affordable for states.
Opponents of the $14 billion program have criticized its high costs for states and expressed fears the new security system for compliant driver's licenses would amount to an invasion of privacy for the holders.
"It's more and more clear that the Real ID system won't work to secure the country," said Jim Harper of the Libertarian Cato Institute. He predicted more states will join those rejecting the act.
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