PM vows to protect security and liberty

Gordon Brown has defended the use of surveillance technology and new legislation to tackle crime and terrorism.

In a speech on security and liberty delivered on Tuesday, the prime minister said the government would protect those two "equally proud traditions".

Warning of change in the scale of the threat from terrorism, he said the security services estimated there were at least 2,000 known terror suspects in the UK today, and 30 current plots.

"These are not remote or hypothetical threats. They are, sadly, part of today's reality," he said.

Brown said that while "in many ways we are more secure as a country than at most times in our history", the country faced modern threats from organised crime, drug trafficking and organised illegal immigration.

"Put it this way: While the old world was one where we could use only fingerprints, now we have the technology of DNA," he said.

"While the old world relied on the eyes of a policeman out on patrol, today we also have the back-up of CCTV.

"While the old world used only photographs to identify people, now we have biometrics."

He argued the solution to modern threats was not to reject "21st century means of detecting and preventing crime", but to adopt new technologies and strengthen the protection of the individual.

He defended the government's move to allow terror suspects to be detained without charge for 42 days, saying the change in the law was accompanied by increased safeguards.

ID cards

Identity cards could be used to tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, he said, and would "make a powerful contribution on an individual level to our personal security" by combating identity fraud.

He added that "we have no plans for it to become compulsory for people to carry an ID card", but said they would be used for "those occasions in everyday life where people already have to carry an ID card".

Brown also defended the use of CCTV, noting it had been instrumental in identifying suspects after terrorist incidents and in cutting crime and anti-social behaviour.

"Let us not pretend that CCTV is intrinsically the enemy of liberty," he said.

"Used correctly, with the right and proper safeguards, CCTV cuts crime, and makes people feel safer - in some cases, it actually gives them back their liberty."

And he said the national DNA database had "revolutionised the way the police protect the public".

"I agree with those who argue that the very freedoms we have built up over generations are the freedoms terrorists most want to destroy," he said.

"And we must not - we will not - allow them to do so.

"But equally, to say that we should ignore the new demands of security - to assume that the laws and practices which have applied in the past are enough to face the future, to be unwilling to face up to difficult choices and ultimately to neglect the fundamental duty to protect our security - this is the politics of complacency."