The Daily Mail in Great Britain is reporting that every police officer in London - from the average bobby pounding a beat on up to London Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Ian Blair - will soon be implanted with a microchip that will allow their movements to be tracked all over London, whether they're on the street or in a pub or deep in the underground, or just at home. The penalty for refusing to be "chipped", says the story in the Daily Mail, is that a police officer will lose his or her job.
In actual fact the Police department as well as the company, Telent, which is providing the facility are not forthcoming with details of where the new tracking device will be implanted. It is quite likely to be located, as an initial measure, on some essential equipment (probably some vital communication gadget) which officers already have to carry. The Daily Mail however, not unreasonably, fills in the gap, predicting exactly where such development will eventually lead with its screaming headline: Met Police officers to be 'microchipped' by top brass in Big Brother style tracking scheme. This is especially logical in the face of the puzzling threat that cops who opt out will get fired.
Obviously not many police officers share the enthusiasm of the Police department on the matter - fearing that the new system will turn them into 'Robocops' simply obeying instructions from above rather than using their own judgment. Many also cannot fail to notice the similarity between the new device and the electronic tags placed on prisoners. According to the Daily Mail, “One officer, working in Peckham, south London, said: "They are keeping the exact workings of the system very hush-hush at the moment - although it will be similar to the way criminals are electronically tagged. There will not be any choice about wearing one. “ Incidentally, as we reported in the last edition, the electronic bracelet tag worn by British prisoners could soon be changed into a microchip implant in the body. (See original article at http://cryptogon.com/?p=1879)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=558597&in_page_id=1770
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