The Increasing Use of CCTV in Every Day Life

The next time you go to a store – any store – take a look at the ceiling. The odds are indeed very good that you will see some bubbles that are spaced in regular intervals along the ceiling. What you are seeing are the “eyes in the sky.” Such eyes are everywhere, there in indeed an increasing use of CCTV in every day life. Closed-circuit television, or CCTV, is the technology used by more and more businesses and venues that employs television cameras that will record the goings on of an everyday business day and then transmit this data to a set of monitors. Usually this set of monitors is located of an onsite surveillance center where security officers will review the action displayed in front of them for signs of trouble, disturbances, or even potential disturbances.

Usually the number one goal cited for the increasing use of CCTV technology is crime prevention. After all, if a shoplifter knows that there are cameras trained on the very locations where she or he would normally ply her or his trade, it is likely that this shoplifter will move on with empty hands. Add to this the footage that has made it to national television shows showing how shoplifters who disregarded this threat were later on nabbed by store security and held until law enforcement arrived, it is no small wonder that CCTV has become a force to be reckoned with for anyone who is contemplating theft or purse snatching in today’s retail environment. Thus, the crime of shoplifting has been detected and prevented.

Other venues that more and more rely on the idea of CCTV to detect and prevent crimes are gas stations. In a time when gas station robberies have resulted in the installation of bullet proof glass in many gas stations to separate attendants from those who would assault them for access to the safe, it is important that the staff will not be lured outside by cries for help or emergencies they cannot immediately verify. Surveillance cameras located on the perimeters of a gas station permit an attendant to keep track on an in-station monitor of whatever activity is going on outside. Sometimes the view from the attendant is obscured by columns or simply walls, giving therefore would-be robbers the edge by luring an unsuspecting attendant out of the safety of the locked and secured station. With this no longer being the case in a large number of cases, the crimes of robbery, physical assault, and perhaps even murder are being prevented on a daily basis.

One location that is famous for its use of CCTV technology is the casino. Casinos make no bones about the many eyes in the sky they have trained on employees and customers alike. In a venue where large sums of money change hands on an hourly basis, and where disgruntled customers may attempt to cheat at the games rather than play fairly and accept the house advantage, it is vital for the fiscal solvency of the casino industry to deter and detect theft, fraud, and dishonesty immediately and to deal with it decisively. Television programs featuring casinos in Las Vegas and other locations will often devote some of their segments to the security measures the casinos employ to catch those bent on being dishonest. In a way, the casino’s decision to be open and up front about their procedures has done a lot to alert the general public to this kind of surveillance, and it has helped casinos to put the general public and also its employees on alert that every move may be scrutinized.

Of course, some venues have gone too far in their use of surveillance equipment. Reports from Calgary, Alberta, Canada state that the Talisman Center, which is a sports complex that attracts a large number of visitors every year, has indeed installed surveillance cameras in its changing rooms where men and women may be viewed and recorded in various stages of undress. Obviously, even supporters of the CCTV technology draw the line at this kind of surveillance and it is no small wonder that the technology receives a bad reputation when it is misused for these or similar purposes.