CCTV spy cameras will TALK in London

London is to get CCTV cameras that tell off offenders in the street.

Drunks, vandals and litter louts will be chastised with a child's voice broadcast over loudspeakers.

The cameras will zero in on anti-social behaviour and an operator at a control centre will trigger the pre-recorded ticking off. And not only will the camera talk, it will listen. A help button will allow the public to alert the control centre to turn the lens to trouble elsewhere.

A scheme in Middlesbrough using the special cameras, picturedis said to have cut public order offences by 70 per cent.

But it was branded "absurd" by civil liberty campaigners today. Other critics said criminals will simply move on.

Tony Arbour of the Metropolitan Police Authority said: "We are accustomed to Big Brother seeing us, but now he will be speaking to us. It will certainly be alarming for people who are creating disorder. "I am cautious about their introduction, but they may reduce crime." Local authorities using the speaking cameras include Southwark, Barking, Dagenham, Reading, Thanet and Harlow.

Southwark council plans to install 13 cameras with "emergency help buttons" which will allow passers-by to speak directly to security guards monitoring the CCTV footage in case they need to alter the screen's position.

Southwark councillor Jeff Hook said: "Talking CCTV will help decrease fear of crime, reassure local residents, disrupt anti-social behaviour, and allow members of the public to communicate with staff in the control room."

But Doug Jewell, campaigns coordinator of Liberty, warned: "This latest hi-tech toy gives camera operators massive powers to invade the lives of ordinary people."

Competitions will be run to select the children's voices to be used in the pre-recorded messages.