Video and Data Surveillance

VIDEO AND DATA SURVEILLANCE

Crime is a universal concept. It goes wherever man has gone; therefore it is safe to say crime is a human phenomenon. There are several forms of criminal activities, and these have been categorized broadly into two, namely, white collar and general crime which comprises of violent crime and others. Since time immemorial, different societies have devised ways through which criminals can be easily identified, either during or after the criminal activity. In the past, villages had sentinels at the main entrance to each village. These sentinels could see far and wide and could see an approaching enemy. Others had shamans and witches who it was believed could easily pick out a perpetrator from a crowd using supernatural means.

This however being the 21st century, man has been more technologically averse to his surrounding and the technological knowhow at his disposal. Just has criminals have become more sophisticated in their methods, so have the means and modes of surveillance kept abreast of these changes. There have arisen quite new- age technologies that have enabled man to better keep surveillance on another. These are through video and data surveillance systems. The guiding principle behind these new systems is that the world has become a more inter-connected place, where knowledge and information can be found easily and everywhere. Through new communication technologies such as cell phones, computers, the internet, and cameras, it has become easy for surveillance to cross the threshold of public to private surveillance.

These modes of surveillance have heightened securities in many cities. They act as a means of deterrence since they eradicate one of the greatest pillars of crime and that is anonymity. Criminals now have to think twice before committing a crime since they are afraid there could be a camera somewhere recording their illegal actions. This brings us to the point of closed circuit television (CCTV), which are a system of surveillance cameras, coordinated from a single point and which are spread out in a certain location. There is no doubt the immense impact that CCTV surveillance systems have had on improving security around the world. In fact it is estimated that in the United Kingdom alone, criminal activities around parks and recreational areas nearly halved after installation of CCTV cameras in the areas where crime was prevalent.

The United Kingdom has the most number of CCTV cameras and is considered to have the highest number of surveillance cameras per person in the world, and this has created several issues pertaining to the rights to privacy of an individual which I shall discuss in a bit. However the issues of privacy pale in comparison to the benefits that CCTV surveillance has helped in preventing crime. In fact were it not for CCTV cameras more than half of all foiled terrorism attack plans would have been successful and this would have been a very high price to pay in exchange for our privacy. It has been a markedly easier affair to track and follow potential terrorists through video surveillance as this enables the observer