Does the CIA have access to the CCTV cameras in London?

[Torsten]

Hi,

For those of you who have seen the third movie of Bourne Identity Trilogy you might remember the scene where the CIA officer says 'Give me all the CCTVs' eyes'. Now, my question is does the CIA have direct access to all the CCTV cameras in London?

I would imagine that this is a part of an agreement between the British and the US governments.

What do you think?

TOEIC listening, question-response: How about a vanilla latte?

[Kitosdad]

YES. Definitely.
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Keep it simple ... Keep it interesting.

[Jamie (K)]

I rather doubt that the CIA have that kind of direct access. Maybe the British authorities would sign such an agreement, but I quite doubt they would knowingly let another country's spies have unfettered access to their own surveillance feeds. There would be too much potential for mischief.

And if the CIA and FBI can't even access each other's data efficiently, or sometimes at all, I certainly doubt things would be so free and easy between the CIA and the British. And in the US, the FBI and other agencies need prior court permission just to tap people's cellphones -- even the cellphones of known terrorists.

It's a dystopian Hollywood delusion that the CIA has constant access to all the information on everyone everywhere, but they pretty obviously don't. Hollywood perpetuates that fantasy, though, because it can make for an exciting story.