Security Camera Systems

How video surveillance is becoming the next trend in law enforcement

There's seldom a month that goes by without a new movie showing a security camera system being nimbly disabled by a crooked Clive Owen, stealthy Tom Cruise, or blackmailed family man Harrison Ford. But movie stars aren't the only ones fighting security camera systems these days. Cities are increasingly turning to security camera systems to combat crime, and not everyone is happy about it.

Orwellian Britain

It was British author George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 that gave us the name Big Brother, the tyrannical figure who kept an eye on every aspect of citizens' private lives. And strangely enough, it is Britain that is most notorious for its use of security camera systems in combating crime.

Over 4 million security cameras are currently being trained on Britons, over 200,000 of them in London alone. It is estimated that the average Briton is seen by 300 security cameras every day.

Does such an elaborate security camera system actually work as a crime deterrent? The answer is unclear. Britain’s security camera system, known as CCTV, or closed-circuit television, was used to solve the high profile murder of a 2-year-old in the early 1990s. They were also used to identify the bombers involved in the London attacks on July 7, 2005. However, government studies have suggested that Britain's security camera system is most effective at tracking automobiles.

Big Brother meets Uncle Sam

This heavy dependence on video security systems is quickly catching on in the U.S.. Financed by grants from the Department of Homeland Security, many American cities are developing extensive security camera systems for police surveillance.

In Chicago, over 2,000 cameras are part of the city's Homeland Security Grid, thanks to over $50 million in grants from the Department of Homeland Security. The security camera system in Baltimore will eventually include five counties tied in to the city's Watch Center.

There is evidence that such security camera systems are as ineffective at crime prevention in America as they are in Britain. Police officials in Miami, Oakland, and Detroit have already found that their video security systems did little to prevent crime.

Privacy concerns

Separate from the debate over the preventative effectiveness of security camera systems is another debate over invasion of privacy. Britain's video security system has already been criminally misused. Three CCTV operators were convicted of voyeurism in December, 2005. Another CCTV operator was convicted on obscenity charges after making phone calls to people he'd been watching.

A Data Protection Act was passed in Britain in 1998 limiting the potential uses of information captured on the CCTV security camera system, but the U.S. has yet to follow suit. The legality of such data has yet to truly be fought over in American courts, but such a battle is clearly looming over the horizon.

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