Gone are the days when a dozen people were hired to walk around in malls or certain work places acting as surveillance and monitoring what people were doing. A lot of things could go wrong due to human error and especially fatigue. With the CCTV technology, only a single person is required to sit behind a screen and monitor all the activities going on in a particular place. CCTV cameras have a special recording feature which captures every detail and can be played back to show what happened at a particular time frame. They are installed at different locations in a particular building or site and in different angles to capture all activities and then integrated into a common control room where the monitoring happens. In general, there are four important benefits brought by the application of this device. One of which is that for lots of businesses, it saves the labor cost. In the past, many people were hired to do monitoring around buildings and malls. Due to the invention of CCVT camera technology, the overall security system has greatly improved, the job position relates to surveillance and monitoring is not needed which saves the labor cost to some extent.
With the rising security concerns in homes with kids, parents have felt safer when they have CCTV cameras installed in their homes. Parents can monitor what is happening at home when they are at their work places or just out running other errands. The growing economy and rising needs usually push both parents or care givers to work in order to provide for their little ones. They are therefore forced to leave their kids in the hands of a nanny. The CCTV technology has developed new kinds of cameras known as the Nanny cameras which are often disguised as dolls, light bulbs, wall clocks or just pieces of art placed strategically in the house. Nannies wouldn’t know if they are being monitored and their every move tracked by their employer. A story goes about a lawsuit that was filed against a 19-year old nanny in Wisconsinwho was ill-treating a 4 month old child and even throwing the baby carelessly into the crib which would have resulted to serious injuries to the kid. Thanks to the CCTV camera installed, the parents were able to note the mistreatment early and act accordingly.
During large events with so many people in attendance, security is among the things that are considered during event organizing. It is important to hire security guards to be present during the event but it is more important to have CCTV cameras installed in different positions in the event venue including the parking lot. For security to be at its best during such events, the people working in the CCTV control room should have an effective communication system with the security guards on the ground. When the control room personnel notice a certain security concern, they should quickly alert the security personnel closest to that particular occurrence who should take action following a certain agreed on protocol.
Another environment where CCTV cameras have played a major role in addressing security issues is in the work places. Employers no longer need to be in the office all the time watching what their employees are doing. The main reasons why employers install CCTV systems in their business premises include; ensuring that their stock is safe from theft from employees or even outsiders, ensuring employee security, monitoring productivity of different employees and also ensuring that certain company protocols are observed to the core. One scenario where an employee was caught committing a felony is when a certain Human Resource manager working for a car company noticed a series of thefts in the warehouse. There was a person responsible for keeping the warehouse records of what was available and what was not. During stock taking, the person noticed that some tires and rims were missing from the warehouse and alerted the Human Resource manager. There was a lot of panic as the tires and rims cost a lot of money. The HR manager had a sit down with the security team to try and establish what really happened and how to address such security issues. They looked through the time cards and entrance logs to try and establish who might have stolen the tires and rims but there were so many people involved and they couldn’t get the specific culprit. They resulted to installing CCTV cameras in the warehouse and after a few days, they were able to catch the culprits red handed by going through a footage recorded via the CCTV cameras. Turns out the thieves were employees who had been working in the warehouse for about two years and the culprits were charged in a court of law.
There has been a new trend developed from the CCTV technology known as face recognition where target individuals can be recognized as they are walking past certain CCTV cameras and information about their whereabouts known. This new development has both positive and negative impacts on security. On the positive side, certain known criminals on the run can be easily caught and brought to justice irrespective of the location they are. When a criminal is “wanted” in a particular country, the security department of that particular country communicates with the security departments of other countries and details of the culprit are sent. The information including pictures is fed into computers and CCTV systems and once the face of the culprit is detected in a certain CCTV location, an alert is sent and an arrest can be made. Sadly, most culprits on the run are well aware of this trend and they may choose to stay off the grid or wear hoodies or caps that shield their faces from CCTV cameras whenever they are in public places. On the downside ,this technology is not only used by security firms who want to get a hold of culprits but can also be used by culprits with an aim of assassinating or eliminating certain prominent people. Politics and power battles can often lead to such crimes being committed.
From all discussed above, it is quite clear that the CCTV camera technology has been a life saver for most human beings. The positive impacts this kind of technology has on security definitely outweigh the negative impacts. Some people however feel like CCTV cameras are an invasion of privacy as their everyday activities are recorded somewhere without even their permission. Imagine being recorded all day in the office, in the market and on the streets as you go home. Most people fear that they could be in danger if the information falls in wrong hands or if they have a stalker tracking their every move and has an intention of harming them or their family members. However, people should understand that most CCTV cameras are installed with an aim of ensuring that their security and the security of those around them is uptight. This kindof technology and security protocol is quite affordable and the benefits are massive and therefore, people are encouraged to use this technology in their everyday lives to promote safer environments.
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