Final Research Paper
But the real question here is: does society feel a sense of omfort when they know that a surveillance camera is watching every single move at any given moment? Of course they do. Surveillance cameras have multiple purposes to which they operate. Though their use may be considered spying, it benefits society greatly by a reduction of crime. Video surveillance has been proven to be successful in cities where many thieves amass, where suspicious individuals attempt to exploit proceedings for their own corrupt benefit, and also in neighborhoods with a high crime rate.
A few examples of where surveillance can be utilized may include, but are not imited to: lowering the risk of suspicious activity, locating artifact that are on external grounds and understanding how the artifact arose in said location, and also it may be used as a simple means to give a sense of security to citizens especially in high risk situations such as banks. In many cases video footage is used in courts and even in public safety stations. Its success has been proven statistically.
There are several reasons why video surveillance should be incorporated in our daily lives primarily for crime prevention, as evidence in crime scenes, and for public safety reasons. To begin with, video urveillance cameras were invented by a German engineer under the name of Walther Burch. The very first time that these surveillance cameras appeared in the united States of America was in the year 1962 in Olean, New York. For the first time, cameras were installed in the business area to help with the prevention of crime.
In the world of the monetary system in other words “The banking industry, it was one of the first businesses to use surveillance cameras in a bulky scale. Globally, government uses these cameras at military bases, government building and where there is a high risk of suffering a errorist attack. Ever since the 1 960’s, the use of surveillance cameras has developed exponentially. Video surveillance cameras play a big role in a city. For example, it helps catch thieves in the city.
If a crime has been committed, and there was a video camera filming the area where the incident occurred, well there is a high chance that the proper authorities will be able to get a visual image of the perpetrator, also known as a “Mug Shot. ” This evidence can be used as a propaganda method to be displayed on electric poles, given to store managers to post at cash registers in case the perpetrator appears, nside store windows so that customers can see and hope someone will identify the criminal, posted on the daily news channel, newspapers, on the back of a milk carton, and so on.
Without the use Of these items, it would Of have been difficult to identify in a detailed prospective of what the perpetrator looks like. According to “Homeland Security’, “in Chicago, Washington D. C, Baltimore it indicates that dispatch received approximately 500 calls in a single month city report and with the installation of video surveillance, crime rate in these 3 cities has dropped approximately 20 percent in crime rates month after month”. This means that this is an effective tactic for lowering crime. But it is cost effective though. Just on the installation of the cameras cost around 190,000 dollars in each city but the outcome was pretty much a money saver. It saved the city approximately, 81 5,000 dollars monthly in criminal process costs and in justice, victim’s financials, and its emotional cost and treatment as well as hospitalization if required” says chief of police McCarthy. That is 271 ,666 dollars per city which is pretty good for every month. It has also helped detect suspicious suspects outside buildings that have bad intentions towards society or any packages hat are left in parks, outside businesses, residencies that have a mysterious characteristic of it.
Having this kind of system, multiple of crimes has been prevented; for example, in Los Angeles, 2 suspects are on the look for a break into a house which had a surveillance camera outside and inside their homes. Moments later, they were caught by the authorities. Besides, having video surveillance cameras, it gives people a sense of security due to the fact that somebody can be monitoring and be at the same time protecting someone else from any danger that may occur. This creates a tension between the erpetrator and the civilian because they will think about it twice before committing the crime if there are cameras watching him.
Even though the criminal commits the crime and flea’s, the authorities have a software where they can identify the person with just their facial and capture it and make the job easier for the police to look for and even helps in the sense of facial detection whereas if that person that committed the crime has a criminal record then ifs probable that the perpetrator can be much more likely to be found without any problem due to it the record of the persons living status previous addresses, possible friends which have been captured with and so on).
This has actually help in terrorist attacks in the world. And yet again, it has been proven that by having these systems incorporated into our daily life, it can help save hundreds of lives, prevent oncoming crimes, and help someone that may be in the need of an officer. Secondly, not only video surveillance can be used to save lives of innocent people, prevent crimes, or capture a criminal, but it can be used in court case to be proven that either you are innocent or guilty or be used to show that you smuggled something rom a store that didn’t pertain to you.
Major purpose of having surveillance cameras is to act as discouragement to robbers, criminals and all other illicit personnel. These cameras have a purpose of monitoring suspicious activities going on. It would stop theft, vandalizing property, even shoplifting that can alert all stationed security officers on real cyber time thefts. Even by being at central, guards can contact state or county law enforcement about the situation. And with the video tape with proof that the person has been doing illicit things, it can be taken up to court with a judge and determine if his ctions where bad or they weren’t.
By having these cameras watching over the civilian’s, it has helped the FBI and other authorities on the capture of the Boston Bombers, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev and 19 – year old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev. They were caught in the middle of the crowed carrying a black backpack to which is a suspicion that in that bag the bombs where carried to two parts. One in the finish line and the other one about 4 blocks away from which the first bomb detonated 1 2 seconds apart from each other.
A camera in the Lord and Taylor store was the actual surveillance camera that caught every single moment of the incident. From the entrance of the bombers, leaving the packages where it needed to detonate and the disappearance of themselves. Besides this case, there are numerous of cases that were used as evidence to prove a case. For example “The murder of James Bugler” of 1993, abducted and then murdered a 2 year old boy who the camera of a store outside caught the moment when the child was abducted and who actually did it.
It got the facials of both boys of 10 years old under the names of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. In the clip of the shopping center, it shows how one of the kids takes James by the hand and walks away ith the infant. After murdering infant, the authorities arrested them and didnt show any type of remorse of the actions committed. Another example is the bombing of 1999 in London. Mr. David Copeland was caught on the street on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance cameras on in which it shows where and when David planted the bomb to explode in Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, central London..
But it was too late, when a colleague of his identified David to the police. On the other hand, no all the times, video surveillance can be used only for protection but it can be used as well as for wns self-defense in a court case where being accused of a crime that it was never committed. In other words, it can save innocent people from going to jail with the proof that if wasn’t the person being accused by having all of the evidence at hand of time and place it was committed and to be compared with what is being presented at court.
A true case from 1994 of Anthony Graves sentenced to death penalty because he was found guilty of burning down houses and raping and killing 6 people to which in 2004 when he was executed, evidence show that he was in fact innocent from the crime supposedly he committed. In the evidence presented, there are family photos, videos taken of where and when Anthony Graves was at that moment. Finally, installing cameras in public places does not fulfill the part of having crime prevention, be able to use it for evidence, to have a sense of security. But it can also be used as for a sense public safety.
What this mean is that, it can be used to alert other drivers about a traffic accident, congested roads, city Streets, it also works for city violations. For example, if someone is speeding and runs a red light, a traffic camera will write a traffic violation for running a red light. All of these traffic violators will be sent a digitalized image of where, when, and why the violation is being sent to them. Not only are the cameras used in traffic citations but in traffic accidents it can clearly be stated who had a fault in a rear-end collision.
Also, this system is used by all emergency agencies that assist to an emergency call use these types of systems to self-orientate to where to head to and being able to see where exactly it is. Inclusive, it is used to catch a person on the run that is lost and needs to be found. This system has a variety of outcomes when it comes to using these services. It also helps reduce accidents in places where drivers are exceeding what is so called the speed limit. Accidents have been lowered in about 20 percent in the past 3 years with the installation of these cameras in high ways.
When talking about speed cameras, there are 2 different cameras which were compared and gave 2 different results according to www. roadpeace. org. There are “mobile and fixed speed cameras”. Each one has a different ratio on its usage. According to the website, “Fixed speed cameras have more effectiveness than the mobile cameras to the point of reducing speed tickets by 71 percent approximately. On the other hand, mobile cameras only have the result of 21 percent in decreasing speed citations. So basically, the usage of cameras in highways, city streets has lowered the rates of death, speeding citations, and accidents.
In emergency situations as well it has helped by locating any units available that close enough to the actual location where the call of emergency came in or even can be used as a mid-point to locate someone who is making prank calls to any emergency agencies, and can locate the phone booth if the call came in from a booth or trace the exact location of where the call could have been ade from. No matter if the call came in from a cellphone, it can be traced my GPS (Global Positioning System) and the surveillance camera trace the call using the GPS’s coordinates.
Surveillance cameras show as well city streets if they are full of traffic. Certain Surveillance cameras have the function to show you roads, city streets online. Not only is its purpose to cite drivers but to keep citizens informed of the roads. people say that they aren’t comfortable having surveillance cameras in their daily life due to invasion of privacy, claiming that the surveillance is a form of harassment among other ideas. They may argue that they feel an invasion of privacy because theyre being recorded by monitors and have no idea who is recording and for what purpose. However, the safety of our society always comes first.
Though few feel that video surveillance violates the constitutional value of the Ninth Amendment which is right to privacy, the greater good for the many outweighs the discontent of select individuals. Furthermore, if everyone in society abides by laws and behaves in an amicable and trustworthy manner, than people would have nothing to worry about, suggesting that the select ndividuals who oppose such recordings really have something to hide because their intentions are not honest. In conclusion, the use of surveillance cameras is becoming increasingly common because of their use they have become effective in multiple ways in their usage.
Basically, it’s a preventative of protection when it comes to society. There are several reasons why video surveillance should be incorporated in our daily lives primarily for crime prevention, as evidence in crime scenes, and for public safety reasons. People say that they arent comfortable having surveillance cameras in their aily life due to invasion of privacy, claiming that the surveillance is a form of harassment among other Ideas. They may argue that they feel an invasion of privacy because thefre being recorded by monitors and have no idea who is recording and for what purpose.
However, the safety of our society always comes first. Though few feel that video surveillance violates the constitutional value of the Ninth Amendment which is “right to privacy”, the greater good for the many outweighs the discontent of select individuals. Furthermore, if everyone in society abides by laws and behaves in an amicable and rustworthy manner, than people would have nothing to worry about, suggesting that the select individuals who oppose such recordings really have something to hide because their intentions are not honest.
