ABSTRACT
In British towns and cities, too, the fortress impulse in urban design and management
is becoming mote prominent. Gated residential communities, the private policing
of office and shopping spaces, local curfews to reduce the risk of public disorder at
night in city-centre streets, and, within the last five years, the proliferation of public
space CCTV surveillance systems are all increasingly common strategic responses to
anxieties about crime and concern at declining consumer and business confidence in
urban centres. Of course, the 'fortress impulse' in urban design is not new (see
Bannister, 1991; Tilley, 1995) but the widespread introduction of CCTV surveillance
cameras and other surveillance technologies has significantly increased what Rule
(1973) calls 'surveillance capacity' in contemporary cities. To an unprecedented
degree, people are now under surveillance in the routines of everyday life and thus
more visible to invisible watchers than ever before. At work, numerous devices can
monitor the duration of our working day and the length of our rest periods; when
consuming goods, surveillance techniques evaluate our credit worthiness, record our
purchases and analyse our preferences; and as we move through space, CCTV surveil-
lance cameras (of which it is estimated there are currently more than 500,000 in
public and private spaces across Britain; see Norris et al., 1996) watch and record
us on transportation systems, in shops and offices, and on the street. In short, someone
'going about his or her daily routine may be under watch for virtually the entire
time spent outside the house' (Squires, 1994: 396).
