Digital Surveillance Cameras What Are They Good For

Almost daily we are reminded of the usefulness of Digital Surveillance Cameras. There are whole shows on television, some are a hour or more in length showing police car chases, robberies in progress, sporting events gone wrong and ordinary people in unusual situations. Just last night I watched a program on police video camera evidence where actual footage was explained by real police officers, and how criminals were convicted without a word from the crooks defense attorney once the footage of the crime was shown in court.

Actual Case in progress

Dateline: March of 2007 - Chicago. Illinois

By this time millions of U.S. citizens have heard about the Highly-inebriated off-duty policeman who weighed 230 lbs. and stood 6 feet I inches tall who kicked the living day lights out of a 115 lb. female bartender to prove that "nobody tells me what to do."
Why did he do this? She refused him one more drink-e-poo.
The defenseless female bartender had a right to deny the 230 pounder another drink because of his condition and to protect the bar from a lawsuit in case he injured or killed himself in his sodden state.

The 115 lb. badly bruised female can thank the owner of Jesse's for one thing; the assault was recorded on Surveillance camera video. The video surfaced a month after the incident, which forced the head of the Chicago police department to prosecute after at least one other officer had attempted a cover-up.
Thank God that most law enforcement officers are sober, honest upstanding citizens.

The benefits of surveillance cameras and recorders to prevent as well as catch crime when it's happening have been well documented. Surveillance cameras are used universally at bank ATM machines to capture the image of possible thieves who tamper with the cash distributors. Security camera systems are also widely used to observe factories, high-tech installations casinos and airports.

As we look around us we find that the surveillance systems seem to be a necessary part of our everyday lives. In the great metropolitan cities there
are camera systems set-ups in high crime areas known to the local residents as "the eye in the sky"

No Security Camera Here

Here's a case where surveillance cameras could have prevented the robbery of an unarmed security guard.

As reported in the April, 2007 edition of the Chicago Journal newspaper an armed robbery occurred in the 2000 West Ferdinand St. at 2:30 a.m. on February 27th of this year.

A security guard working for a pallet manufacturing company was walking in an alley near Ferdinand Street when he noticed a man standing on a stack of wooden pallets (materials are stacked on them to allow transporting by fork lifts). When the guard announced that he was a guard for the Pallet Company the armed man jumped down from the pile of wooden pallets pulled out he blue steel handgun and yelled for the security guard to give him his wallet. The startled guard was forced to hand over his wallet and cell phone. The police had not found the robber as on April 3, 2007.

How could Surveillance Cameras have prevented this robbery?

With the proper Surveillance camera system connected to a video recorder, computer and monitor the security guard would have been able to view the perpetrator, record his activity, and report him to the police without leaving the safety of the building or a security vehicle.

To conclude, Surveillance cameras are being employed across the U.S. and around the world for the prevention of crime and the identification and apprehension of criminals. Computer software such as VISEC has been developed to allow remote viewing of businesses, homes, schools and hospitals
by business owners, home owners, parents and administrators from anywhere in the world with a computer and an internet connection. The advent of the computer and the surveillance camera system has been a blessing for the good guys and a curse for the bad ones.

UPDATE:
The off-duty Police officer and his Lawyer entered a plea of Not Guilty as of
June 22, 2007.

Hidden And Watching

Sometimes the constraints of security in a business place give rise to the use of hidden cameras, still or video, to record the activities of individuals without their knowledge. So that the subject is not aware that he's on camera, the apparatus may either be concealed or disguised as an object of art or placed behind an object so that it could not be detected while it's whirring.

Concealed or spy cameras have turned into a commonly used device even for surveillance to keep up the security of a household. If they have to be kept concealed, so that a burglar breaking in may not see it and destroy it first, they are carved into objects of day to day use such as clock radios, plants, cell phones, or integrated with such as smoke detectors. The use of hidden cameras is as wide commercially and industrially to strengthen the security network.

Wired or wireless a hidden camera can be installed suited to one's requirement. In their wired state, the hidden camera is often to an electrical appliance such as the television. On the other hand, a wireless hidden camera is capable of transmitting signals to a receiver within a small radius so it could be placed anywhere and doesn't have to be connected to any appliance.

Besides fighting crime, hidden cameras are also put to efficient use in a place of work to nail down a person being disloyal to the organization. In such cases a hidden camera is discreetly planted in his area of work, cabin etc and footage taken there could incriminate in case he is caught red-handed.

Hidden cameras are not too big in size and so it is never too big a problem where to install them. They could be tucked in easily even in a pen stand, a clock on the wall, beneath the curtain rod. The important thing is to install it in such a way that from the given angle it is able to record the scenario in its entirety.

While installing hidden cameras in a place of work, pragmatism must be exercised and it should not be an objectionable or obscene intrusion of an employee's privacy in the name of security concern.