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Family tells of girl's 'lucky escape'
CCTV operators managed to record the entire incident.
The family of a 16-year-old girl who was the victim of an attempted abduction caught on CCTV footage have said she had a "lucky escape".
The incident took place on York Road, Adwick, in Doncaster, at 0320 BST on Friday 27 June.
The CCTV footage shows a man walking on a footpath next to the teenager before picking her up and dragging her into some bushes.
After a struggle the girl managed to escape from the man.
CCTV camera operators captured the attack after being alerted by an off-duty police officer who was concerned after seeing the girl walking on her own.
In a family statement read by a police officer at a news conference, her family said: "We'd like to help police to stress the dangers of walking out alone at night.
"We recognise that she did have a very lucky escape from what might have otherwise been tragic circumstances."
The statement went on: "We are overawed by the scale of the public response and would like to express our sincere gratitude for the assistance given by the public in this matter."
Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fewkes said the force had received 130 calls from the public about the incident over the last two days, in which 70 specific men had been named.
He told the news conference: "One of the most important things is to make a further appeal for information from members of the public, particularly those in the Doncaster area.
"From inquiries we have made over the last two days we firmly believe this man had been in Doncaster town area specifically on the night of Thursday 26 June and the early hours of Friday 27 June."
He stressed that this incident was not an "everyday" occurrence but warned women to take precautions until the man is caught.
He said: "There is absolutely no doubt that this individual has followed this girl for some distance.
"There is no doubt in my mind that his intention has been to abduct her."
Police have released an e-fit of the man they are hunting.
He is described as 5 ft 10 in tall, aged in his 50s, with a big build and light coloured hair.
'CCTV abductor' facing jail term
Graw attempted to drag the teenager into bushes
A man was who was caught on CCTV trying to abduct a 16-year-old girl is facing a jail sentence after pleading guilty.
Dieter Graw, 46, appeared in Hull Crown Court charged with unlawfully taking the teenager against her will.
CCTV operators spotted Graw picking up the girl and dragging her into bushes in Adwick, Doncaster, on 27 June 2003.
Graw, of Booty Cottage, Great Heck, North Yorkshire, was told by the judge to expect prison. He was remanded in custody for sentencing on 18 June.
The married railway worker was charged in January 2004 after the footage of the incident was shown on national television soon after the event.
South Yorkshire Police received a huge response to the video which showed him grabbing the girl as she walked along York Road in the early hours of the morning.
CCTV operators followed him as he tried to chat to the girl before bundling her into bushes.
The video showed the pair struggling before the girl broke free.
Adjourning the case for sentencing, Judge Jackie Davies said: "The court needs to assess the element of risk that there is, bearing in mind the unusual nature of this matter.
"You will receive a custodial sentence, I warn you of that now."
CCTV films attempted abduction -Family tells of girl's 'lucky escape'
The Big Brother State
: see more at http://securityvideo.magnify.net/
(related cctv remote video George Orwell Monitoring security)
The Big Brother State is an educational film about what politicians claim to be protection of our freedom but what we refer to as repressive legislation.
Since terrorism has become a global threat, especially after 9/11, governments all over the world have started enforcing laws which, so the governments say, should increase national security.
These laws obviously aim at another goal: the states gaining more and more control of their citizens at the cost of our privacy and freedom.
Producer: David Scharf Production Company: Hues For Alice, David Scharf Audio/Visual: sound, color Language: English Keywords: Hues for alice, big brother state, film, education, repression, public surveillance Contact Information: dave@huesforalice.com
Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0
Police chief's 'Orwellian' fears
From the bbc
Police chief's 'Orwellian' fears
CCTV cameras
There are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras in Britain
A senior police officer has said he fears the spread of CCTV cameras is leading to "an Orwellian situation".
Deputy chief constable of Hampshire Ian Readhead said Britain could become a surveillance society with cameras on every street corner.
He told the BBC's Politics Show that CCTV was being used in small towns and villages where crime rates were low.
Mr Readhead also called for the retention of some DNA evidence and the use of speed cameras to be reviewed.
His force area includes the small town of Stockbridge, where parish councillors have spent £10,000 installing CCTV.
Mr Readhead questioned whether the relatively low crime levels justified the expense and intrusion.
'Every street corner?'
"I'm really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras, and what comes next?" he said.
"If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner?
"And I really don't think that's the kind of country that I want to live in."
There are up to 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain - about one for every 14 people.
The UK also has the world's biggest DNA database, with 3.6 million DNA samples on file.
CCTV Footage helps catch and convict murdering Gang Members
Tube Gang Pair Jailed
Two members of an armed gang of hooded thugs led by a couple of killers have been jailed for a minimum of five years each.
During a terrifying campaign of robbery and gratuitous violence, the self-styled Kensal Green Tribe rampaged through Tube trains like a "pack of animals".
Some victims were stabbed while others where overwhelmed by a mob-handed barrage of punches and kicks as iPods, mobile phones, watches and cash was snatched.
One woman, held up at gun point, was even threatened with rape when she initially refused to hand over her valuables.
Those who dared resist were subjected to particular brutality, London's Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court was told. Death threats were frequent.
During eight months of savagery they and other gang members together committed an estimated 150 robberies.
Nearly half were on the underground. It was one of the most brutal and systematic "steaming" sprees the system had suffered and sent month-on-month statistic soaring by a staggering 400%.
Victims were carefully selected with the help of a sickening "good mugging guide" one of the thugs made from a large London Underground map and hung on his bedroom wall.
Easy pickings were marked "good eating", while stations with a heavy police presence or where "prey" tended to resist were also identified.
It all peaked with the cold-blooded murder of high flying City lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce.
Donnel "G Rock" Carty, 19, and Delano "Shy" Brown, 18, were jailed for life last year after they followed him from Kensal Green tube station in north-west London and stabbed him repeatedly for his mobile, oyster card and £20.
Those dealt with today were Aaron "Redrat" Dennis, 19, of Hindes Road, Harrow - who ranked alongside Carty and Brown in the violent stakes - and Sebastian "Icer" Chidi, also 19, of St Luke's Mews, Notting Hill.
They both admitted conspiracy to rob between December 18, 2005 and January 15 last year on an indictment limited to a sample 36 of the 70 or so tube attacks. Nine were carried out on just one evening.
The pair also pleaded guilty to some of the individual attacks.
Biometrics - It's The Way You Walk
New Video
Old Report from "The Register"
Gait advances in emerging biometrics
I can tell by the way you walk
By John Leyden
"Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait."
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Retinal scans, finger printing or facial recognition get most of the publicity but researchers across the world are quietly labouring away at alternative types of biometrics.
Recognition by the way someone walk (their gait), the shape of their ears, the rhythm they make when they tap and the involuntary response of ears to sounds all have the potential to raise the stock of biometric techniques. According to Professor Mark Nixon, of the Image Speech and Recognition Research Group at the University of Southampton, each has unique advantages which makes them worth exploring.
Recognition by ear has already been used in criminal cases and has the advantage that the ear does not change shape with age. Smiling doesn't confuse ear recognition but hair might. Newer techniques such as the otoaustic effect (the response of the ear to sound) has the advantage that it is non-invasive and yet voluntary. However practical implementation is still some way off.
Recognition by rhythm is so simple it is possible to implement it on smartcards. However results of this so far have been mediocre. Using a piezoelectric sensor built into a smartcard, researchers have so far been unable to reduce the false acceptance of impostors below 15 per cent.
Nixon has conducted extensive research on the use of gait as a biometric. Its advantage is that it is effective at a distance or where only low image resolution footage is available, as with CCTV cameras. Nixon worked with other researchers in the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's HumanID at a Distance project until the scheme was canned "because of US privacy concerns".
The speed at which someone walks or runs has little effect on the biometric, but wearing a trench coat can mask the feet, and using flip-flops can also throw measurements. "Perhaps it’s becajavascript:void(0)use we in Britain are not used to wearing flip-flops," Nixon commented.
Nixon told El Reg that the techniques researchers in Southampton, MIT and elsewhere have developed investigating the use of gait as a biometric has applications in other fields. Sports analysis, animation in games and early detection of the onset of disease are just some of the potential of the technique.
Nixon was speaking today in London at an Institute of Electrical Engineers' seminar on the Challenge of biometrics. ®
Police Helicopter Videos Drunk Asleep On Rail Line.
Drunk caught on police helicopter video, asleep with his feet inches away from live rail as London bound train approaches.
CCTV cameras get upgrade at police request
CCTV cameras get upgrade at police request
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Police and the Home Office are planning a significant upgrade of the CCTV network in a move that will deepen concern about a lurch towards a "surveillance society''.
New laws would require camera operators to ensure that their equipment produces images good enough for police investigations.
CCTV camera; CCTV cameras get upgrade at police request
Britain has by far the most cameras in the world - about one for every 12 people
This follows an 18-month review carried out by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) amid concern about the quality of evidence supplied by millions of cameras. The findings are due to be published within weeks.
Britain has by far the largest number of cameras in the world with an estimated five million in public and private hands - about one for every 12 people.
It was disclosed last week that a London council was placing cameras in baked bean cans to spy on householders leaving their rubbish out on the wrong day.
Last November, the Government's privacy watchdog suggested that Britain was more snooped upon than almost any nation on earth.
An academic study concluded that within 10 years, surveillance will be all-pervasive, spurred on by Government claims that it is needed to fight terrorism.
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This proliferation has so alarmed MPs that the Commons home affairs select committee will today announce the first major parliamentary inquiry into "Big Brother'' Britain.
The committee will also take evidence about the growth in state information systems - including the DNA database, which now contains almost four million samples. There were 700,000 on the database when Labour took office in 1997.
MPs are also planning to take another look at ID Cards following changes to the way information is to be stored.
The CCTV review was ordered after the July 7 bombings in London in 2005 which demonstrated the importance of the cameras by picking up the terrorists on the way from Luton to London.
But police found many of the images they acquired, especially those from private and commercial sources, were not good enough.
Police chiefs believe the system has developed in a ''piecemeal'' way and the time has come to impose rules on the type of cameras used.
The growth of digital cameras has particularly alarmed officers. Computerised images using hundreds of different software systems are more difficult to access than analogue videos.
The review involved a huge consultation exercise with manufacturers, retailers, transport representatives, local authorities and police anti-terrorism units.
A draft report proposes regulations to require CCTV equipment to conform to police specifications, but this has to be agreed by Home Office ministers. Police want operators to take advantage of new technologies such as smart cameras that can automatically identify people and analyse their behaviour.
Graeme Gerrard, the deputy chief constable of Cheshire and the Acpo spokesman on CCTV, said: ''We have a very good infrastructure but we are not making the best use of it. This review is about where we should be in 10 or 15 years from now.'
''We want a generic technology that allows us to download images easily and quickly. All those who don't conform would have to change.''
The move will alarm civil liberties groups who have questioned the proliferation of cameras and are sceptical at claims that they help cut crime.
Simon Davies, the director of Privacy International, said: "Surveillance in Britain has now reached a level equivalent to Russia and Malaysia. If something is not done soon to reverse this trend privacy will be extinct within a decade."
Pickpockets Caught On Camera in London's West End
Pickpockets con a man in to a dance. Before stealing his wallet.
Is CCTV really a crime prevention solution?
Is CCTV really a crime prevention solution?
Simon Hall examines the problems of retrospectiveness and poor observation inherent in CCTV systems with manned control rooms. Artificial intelligence (AI), he contends, could be the answer.
We are living in a time in human history where the words ‘security' and ‘prevention' are becoming synonymous. There exist a new wave of criminals, expert in new forms of weaponry and destructive technologies and more insidious and more ingenious in their designs. This frightening reality has created frustration with what many see as a widespread tendency to use CCTV as a source of retrospective video evidence.
Both the NSW Crime Prevention Division in Australia and the United Kingdom Home Office have recently cited academic reports to this effect. Global demand exists for a new level of intelligence in CCTV, one that can play a reliable and preventative role
CCTV used in applications such as street surveillance and critical infrastructure protection, require constant video monitoring by human operators - and therein lies a problem - deploying preventative action is only possibly if the operator sees the incident.
In a study issued by the US National Institute of Justice it was reported that after only 20 minutes of watching video monitors the viewing attention of operators quickly degenerated to a level well below acceptable standards. This and other studies highlight the fact that monitoring video screens has a dulling effect on the senses, which leads to distraction.
To counteract this problem, some manufacturers have developed auditing systems which run in the background, mining data such as - mouse clicks, voice commands and software interaction - to critique a video operator's effectiveness. Companies using these systems have found them costly to setup, time consuming to manage and don't address the limitations inherent with using human operators.
So what is the solution?
Imagine a control room operator that can continually scan video from a 100 cameras, simultaneously - immediately alerting to important events, with over ninety percent accuracy. The operator never gets distracted - doesn't sleep, have lunch or break for coffee.
Impossible? For a human, yes! But not for an ‘artificially intelligent operator'.
Recent improvements in computer processing power have enabled AI developers to release a commercially viable ‘artificially intelligent' system commonly referred to as video analytics. Also know as - content analysis software- this exciting new platform uses powerful algorithms to replicate the logical thinking process a human uses to recognise and alert to a particular situation or object.
Video analytics systems can perform superhuman feats above and beyond the capabilities of a human operator. In a recent media demonstration - the software picked out a black briefcase that had been left on a black marble floor in the foyer of a critical site. Looking at the live video feed, the briefcase appeared totally invisible on the black background - however the software identified the case and immediately created an alarm. In this commercial application the software notifies security staff wirelessly using PDA technology.
AI researchers such as ObjectVideo, Clarity and iOmniscient are delivering video analytic and content analysis solutions to organisations who are seeking to add another layer of intelligence to their existing security camera systems. Airports, power stations, sporting venues and others are seeking specialised integrators to assist them in creating preventative security using the power of AI found within video analytics software.
Simon Hall
Technical writer and security journalist
DRAMATIC FOOTAGE 'Silent drowning' pool girl saved by underwater cameras
A young girl has been saved from drowning in a swimming pool by high-tech underwater safety cameras.
The girl lost consciousness in the deep end of the Bangor Swimming Pool, North Wales and dropped quickly to the floor of the pool, 12ft 6ins under the surface.
Within 10 seconds, one of four underwater safety cameras spotted the girl and alerted lifeguards via a pager message. A lifeguard dived into the water and pulled the girl to safety. She was given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and made a full recovery in hospital.
It is the first time that that a UK swimmer has been saved by the Poseidon safety system, made by a French company, Vision IQ. The system was fitted to the Bangor pool in March 2003 at a cost of £65,000 and involves eight overhead and four underwater cameras.
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The Poseidon technology can detect movement, trajectory and texture of underwater objects. It then compares images to a database of thousands of examples of swimmers in trouble.
If it finds a match, it alerts lifeguards using a pager message which also displays a diagram showing the location of the stricken swimmer. The system has been fitted to eight UK pools and around 100 worldwide.
Gwynedd Council had considered reducing the depth of the deep end at Bangor because of visibility problems and surface glare, but that would have meant removing the diving boards.
Brian Evans, head of leisure services for the council, said: "The incident was what we would call a ’silent drowning’. The girl did not struggle or scream, and there was no visible occurrence that caused her to lose consciousness.
"She just jumped into the water and drifted down to the bottom, as if she was going to sleep. That is the worst case scenario for a lifeguard, and is exactly the sort of thing that Poseidon, our Third Eye, is there to deal with. The pool was very busy and the lifeguards were at full stretch. She may well owe her life to the system."
Francois Marmion, general manager of Vision IQ, which developed Poseidon, said: "It is virtually impossible for lifeguards to see everything that is happening in the pool all of the time, given the warm, noisy and crowded environment in which they work.
"Thankfully she made a full recovery, but just a minute or so longer under the water and she would have suffered brain damage or died."
M Marmion said the system had already helped save the lives of three swimmers in France and a man in Germany who suffered a heart attack. The company hopes the incident in Bangor will encourage more councils to install the system.
"We designed the system to save lives - that is the objective," he said. "It is the lifeguard who saves the life of course, but we can help them."