Watching you, watching them -- CCTV closing in

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - When football fans take to the terraces next season, there's every chance they won't just be watching the game, they'll be being watched watching the game too.

In the latest addition to what civil liberties campaigners have dubbed Britain's "surveillance society", a company is in talks to supply wireless CCTV technology to a Premier League soccer club's security staff.

Hidden in lapels and hats, minute cameras would allow spotters in the crowd to beam live pictures from inside the stadium back to a control room where the images could be scanned in real-time for troublemakers and hooligans.

Already trialled in city centres across the country to cut down on crime, the technology is also used to tackle cash-in-transit theft, an increasingly common form of robbery, and to protect VIPs, according to 802 Global, the company that makes it.

While negotiations with the unnamed Premier League club are still going on, Tim Close, the director of sales and marketing at 802 Global, believes it's only a matter of time before wireless CCTV technology becomes widespread.

"It's adding an extra layer of security to the blanket," he told Reuters. "We see this as an overlay technology to enhance and build on traditional CCTV surveillance.

"For example, if the camera is in a helmet, it's going to be trained straight at the face of the suspect during a robbery, which makes identification much easier -- it's more effective than ordinary CCTV."

While that may be the case -- particularly when it comes to the young "hoodies" who wear hooded tops to hide their faces -- many Britons wonder whether this extra layer is necessary.