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Civil-liberties campaigners have demanded a controversial audio surveillance system be kept out of Scotland.

Their call comes after microphones that can detect aggression by the tone of someone’s voice were installed in Coventry, where they will cover an area blighted by drunken violence.

The Coventry decision has raised the prospect of microphones coming to Scottish cities, as Glasgow was one of the places where a trial was conducted.

The system, called Sigard, is able to direct CCTV cameras towards suspicious sounds, which can also be gunshots or the smashing of glass.

Operators can then direct police straight to a confrontation, in the hope they can stop violence before it erupts. 

Sound Intelligence, the Dutch company that manufactures the system, claims Sigard could be vital in combating violence on British streets. But campaigners fear it may be used to record ­conversations and claim that 

Sigard is another milestone in Britain’s transformation into a surveillance society.

Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Green Party, said: “It must not become a default ­expectation that wherever we are in the public realm, we are being recorded. That is a situation we are close to. There are very few places in Glasgow city centre where you are not on camera.”

Harvie also raised concerns about who would have access to the data gathered by Sigard. “It tends to be that an arm’s-length body controls the data, so there are questions about ­accountability and trust. 

“These questions have not been fully resolved and, until they are, I cannot support the increased use of CCTV and other technological monitoring systems. There are more expensive things that are proven to cut crime, such as ­visible community policing, which uses a pair of eyes from a real person with common sense, rather than relying on a person watching from a control room miles away.”

Sigard works by picking up the changes in someone’s speaking that are said to indicate violence is about to occur, such as a raised voice and change of tone. 

Last February, Sound Intelligence conducted a trial in ­Glasgow, installing microphones in the city centre. At the time, company director Bram Kuipers said: “We detected aggression, and it’s currently under evaluation.” 

He has suggested that police cars could be fitted with microphones and could cruise city ­centres, listening out for audible signs of trouble. 

Sigard has also been tested in London, Manchester and Birmingham. In Hackney in London, the system detected up to six crimes a night, including fights and guns being fired.

The microphones can hear from distances of 100 yards and can ­filter out background noise. They were installed in Coventry city centre after a nine-month trial, and there are now seven microphones covering two streets.

Sigard systems are used more widely in Holland, where 12 cities have fitted the microphones and they are also in use on buses and trains.

Although the company stressed Sigard does not record conversations, campaigners fear it could used for this in the future.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of the anti-CCTV group Big Brother Watch, said: “Coventry has set a very dangerous precedent with this scheme. There can be no justification for giving councils or the police the capability to listen in on our private conversations.”

Last week, more than 200 CCTV cameras in Birmingham was shut down over fears they were being used to monitor Muslim communities. 

Sharpe added: “Coming so soon after their near-neighbours Birmingham were reprimanded for placing a disproportionate number of CCTV cameras in a … Muslim area, Coventry should realise that this sort of intrusive and overbearing ­surveillance is completely unacceptable.”

The spread of CCTV

There are estimated to be 4.8 million CCTV cameras in Britain, which works out at about 13 per person – more per head than any other country in the world. 

There were 1,269 cameras in Scotland during 2003. There are now estimated to be 2,235.

Shetland Islands Council has more CCTV cameras than the city of San Francisco, according to BBC research. 

Glasgow has more CCTV cameras than Paris, with 408 against 326 in the French capital.

Experiments with CCTV in the 1970s and 1980s led to the current boom in the number of cameras. A Home Office report called CCTV: Looking Out For You in 1994 is seen as the beginning of the roll-out of almost universal CCTV surveillance.

A Scotland Yard police chief has claimed only 3% of crimes are solved using CCTV. In London, a Metropolitan Police report released last year showed that in 2008 only one crime was solved per 1000 cameras.

In Scotland, people are likely to be filmed by a CCTV camera up to 300 times a day.