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October Forum: 999, CCTV and Computers: the History of Police Control Rooms

23rd October @ 6:15 pm – 7:45 pm

Location: Gimson Room, Secular Hall, Humberstone Gate, Leicester

Free
Black and white image of a police control room. There are maps on the walls and three policeman and one police woman sit around the control table which has various gadgets. Another officer is standing.
Day 282 West Midlands Police: West Midlands Police via Wikimedia Commons : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Day_282_-West_Midlands_Police(8067244132).jpg

About the October Forum

Presented by Dr Chris Williams

‘999, CCTV and Computers: the History of Police Control Rooms’

Many of us will have dialed ‘999’ and asked for ‘police’. But what’s the history of this system that we take for granted? It began in the 1930s – but owed a lot to earlier innovation from the military and the railways. Once British police forces became centrally controlled on an operational level, they also transformed technologically. Computers brought information into the control room, and CCTV brought images. This lecture tells the story of this transformation and its wider significance in British society.

About the Presenter

Dr Chris Williams has researched and written various books and articles on police history, including police surveillance and the emergence of CCTV. He is the author of Police Control Systems in Britain, 1775–1975: From Parish Constable to National Computer (2014).

Event Details

This is an in-person Forum. There will be tea and cake before the Forum from 6.15 pm. The talk will start at 6.30pm and finish by 7.45pm. The Forum will be held in Secular Hall on Humberstone Gate in the Gimson Room.

Get tickets

To help us with catering numbers, please book your place for this free event here.

October Forum: 999, CCTV and Computers: the History of Police Control Rooms