Overview and categorisation of surveillance

Objectives

To carry out a systematic overview of surveillance systems employed in fighting crime (including crime prevention, reduction and/or the prosecution of crimes) and terrorism in the 27 EU Member States.

Partners

P1RuG, P2UCLAN, P3UL, P4LSC, P5BBU, P6UiO, P7ULE, P8LIF, P9UU, P10UGOE, P11USFD, P12LUH, P14FMUNIBA, P15UoM, P16UNIVIE, P17MU, P18ECU, P19INTERPOL

Description of work

Task 2.1         Identifying and classifying relevant surveillance systems and procedures employed in fighting crime and terrorism in the 27 EU Member States.

WP2 will involve a thorough study to catalogue the different surveillance systems currently employed in crime prevention, reduction and/or the prosecution of crimes in the 27 EU Member States. The study will also consider foreseeable future surveillance systems.  It combines desktop research and peer-referral through input from members of the External Advisory Group. It will also, through the RESPECT consortium’s privileged access to INTERPOL, utilise questionnaires and other means to survey advanced and existing systems in many states outside Europe.

Existing surveillance systems will be mapped, described and classified according to the technology/method used and the purposes for which they were originally designed or actually used.

This overview and categorisation will be used to determine whether there are other technologies and techniques, apart from the ones identified for investigation in WPs 4-8 and by the SMART project, that need to be investigated in this study.

Furthermore, this overview and categorisation will constitute a good foundation for the later tasks of:

  • Identifying grounds for establishment; set-up costs and on-going investment; and amount of staff deployed for each surveillance system identified in WPs 4-8
  • Identifying attitudes of citizens towards the cost, convenience and success of surveillance in the reduction, detection and/or prosecution of crimes
  • Identifying the social cost of surveillance