Mal Fletcher comments on the use of CCTV cameras and Tesco's announcement that they will soon be using face detection software

Some anti-CCTV campaigners argue that the cost of placing and maintaining cameras could be better invested in increasing the visibility of police officers in problem areas.

Campaigners also cite the way CCTV was presented in the 1980s as a means of tracking stolen cars. Very quickly thereafter, they say, it became a means of watching cars that were 'of interest' to the police.

More recently, CCTV has been used by law enforcement as an automatic number plate recognition system, taking up to 14 million photos of vehicles and their owners every day.

In London, cameras originally put up to track congestion charge traffic have reportedly been accessed by police for number plate recognition. This has been done without the benefit of any supporting legislation and without any clearly defined safeguards or lines of accountability.

Today CCTV seems to have spread its wings even further, so that it is becoming a catch-all option for dealing with even minor infringements.

This was illustrated by another story covered in British newspapers last weekend.

Some local councils are planning to use CCTV cameras to record the number plates of parents who park illegally while making school runs.

I suspect that almost anyone who has driven near city schools during drop-off or pick-up times will admit that there is something of a problem here.

Some parents seem to think that the entire world must come to a standstill while they attend to their children.

Yet using CCTV cameras to solve the problem, by tracking relatively minor parking infringements, will only serve to further erode public trust in local councils. It will also lead to questions about unintended consequences.

If this practice becomes widespread, what's to stop councils using CCTV to track other infringements, not only of law but of basic etiquette? Why would they not, for example, use the same tools to identify and penalise people who litter the streets?

Would it be worth allowing ever greater intrusions into our personal space simply to net a few litterers?

Likewise on the corporate front, it is a relatively short jump in pure technological terms from a tool that is used for 'face detection' to one that is designed for 'facial recognition'.

What's to stop companies in future from taking that step?