Brian thomas, of Abbotskerswell, writes:

Your MDA leader of october 8 is right to express caution at plans to put store surveillance in the hands of private home-based individuals through the Internet Eyes 'spy scheme'.

Britain aleady has some 2.4m CCTV cameras, which is around one for every 22 of its 56m population and about 20 per cent of such cameras globally, and whether this is good or bad depends on one crucial issue: responsibility.

In your Comment you are unconcerned about the Big Brother aspect but, unfortunately, this is the crux of the matter: both the Big Brother of George Orwell's authoritarian state in his book l984 and also the subsequent worldwide television 'reality' phenomenon of the Channel 4 show, Big Brother.

Brits have become so used to this form of 'entertainment' that spying on others for sport has become part of the national psyche. So much so, that there are already those who have bought high-definition cameras for the exterior walls of their houses under the guise of deterring theft or vandalism in their domestic environment, yet mostly using them to watch the activities of their neighbours by turning prying lenses on the kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms of adjacent properties. A free, yet intrusive (possibly unlawful, certainly immoral) form of home leisure amusement.

Certainly subscribers have to pay to join the Internet Eyes scheme, which may deter the frivolous, and the police see it as a providing 'more eyes' to catch the criminals, which is always a good thing. But the proposed £1,000 reward for spotting the most offenders, while possibly well-meaning, could easily derail Internet Eyes' positive elements through vigilante tactics and perhaps even fraud.

Also, we have to make sure this doesn't turn into just vigilance on the cheap, being more cost-effective to employ enthusiastic amateurs than to actually pay trained and legally au fait surveillance personnel.

So responsibility is the key, both for those selecting their team and the appointed members of that 'eye in the sky' team too.

If we have to add yet another CCTV element to what has been dubbed Britain's 'climate of suspicion', no matter how justified, then it should be the province of determined, honest and responsible citizens and not populated by the 'nosey parker' or the voyeur.MORE LETTERS IN OUR ONLINE EDITION