CCTV cameras serve various functions depending on their type and placement. High mounted "eye in the sky" cameras can prevent crimes like car theft but often cannot capture perpetrator faces clearly. Dome cameras placed in public spaces like shops can provide full room coverage and have been linked to 23% lower crime. Regular surveillance cameras monitored clusters for security purposes like construction site theft monitoring. Home CCTV kits allow monitoring one's property but raise privacy concerns. While CCTV has aided investigations and is regulated in many cases, some argue it displaces rather than reduces crime and illegal public monitoring has occurred.

1. Amy Moss
CCTV Research & Planning
CCTV stands for ‘Closed Circuit Television’, the use of CCTV consists mainly of video cameras set
up to transmit a signal to a set of monitors. There are many types of CCTV cameras as they all serve
different functions:
This is known as an ‘Eye in the Sky’ CCTV camera, its main usage is in
airports and car parks. The cameras are placed at the top of a high steel
pole to get a bird’s eye view of its surroundings; this type of camera can
prevent car theft and muggings. Unfortunately due to how high it is, it
can often prevent the camera from seeing the perpetrators face, unless
they look directly at it.
Although this type of CCTV can be ineffective, it has proven that when
a security camera of this kind is placed in a car park it has resulted in a
51% decrease of crime.
The shape of this camera at
the top of the high steel
pole is a dome, these can
be found around shopping
centres, street corners,
buses and shops (often in the ceiling). The use of a
‘Dome’ CCTV camera is to get a full shot of the room
or space it is present in, which can often lead to the
prevention of crime, as when these were found or
present on public transportation, crime saw a decrease of
23%.
Often distributed around construction sites are regular
surveillance cameras, these are used by businesses to track they’re workers and in most cases to look
out for thieves stealing material. They are normally clumped together in what surveillance companies
refer to as ‘nests’, when they consist of more than 2 cameras together. This allows the monitor to get
the view from different angles.
Many
people
have
taken
into
incorporating CCTV into their homes by setting up
their own CCTV cameras at the front of their home. This pack will normally consist of a 4 little
cameras and a monitoring system that allows you to connect to most televisions and computers to
record your footage. However these packages are not cheap and often tally up to £687 due to their
efficiency.

2. Amy Moss
Although many people like the idea of protecting their home, others see it
as an invasion of privacy, stating that CCTV displaces crime rather than
reducing it, and it’s often snubbed as ‘Big Brother Surveillance’. As if an
invasion of privacy isn’t a good enough counter argument, CCTV
operators took a big hit in 2007 when ‘Watchdog: Camera Watch’
claimed that the majority of CCTV cameras in the UK are operated
illegally or are in breach of privacy guidelines.
Furthermore, this illegal use of
CCTV can be committed through
a system called IP which stands
for ‘Internet Protocol’ which
allows members of the public to
view many CCTV cameras
through an internet connection available through a tablet,
computer or a 3G phone. This is often used in the case of
criminals where CCTV cameras have been installed next to
ATM machines where the pins of many members of the
public have been noted and used. This happened in
Canterbury when a man was withdrawing money whilst being
watched by an overhead security camera, later that day he
was pickpocketed and a sufficient amount of money was
withdrawn from his account, after the people operating the
security camera were random members of the public viewing
it from a 3G connection.
Nevertheless, not all security cameras are used improperly; the vast majority of cameras are regulated
by legitimate companies and have been used in desperate cases. For example, the kidnapping of James
Bulger in 1992 was a great breakthrough for CCTV cameras and proved that being watched isn’t
always a bad thing. The two boys who were caught on camera
leading James Bulger away had their freedom snatched away
from them when their faces were caught on CCTV used in the
shopping centre.
Positive views of CCTV cameras have argued that the cameras
are not intruding people’s privacy as they are not watching
private, but public space where an individual’s right to privacy
can reasonably be weighed against the intended benefits of
society. However, the counter argument towards this is that if
we are trying to benefit society then why are there no security
cameras in private areas and only public where not many crimes
are committed. For example, in such places as alleys, tube
stations, darkly lit streets where crimes are likelier to happen rather than on a busy high street.
These are not the only places in which CCTV cameras are used, there are other uses for them in day to
day life:
• Traffic monitoring
• Transport Safety

3. Amy Moss
• Control of Retail; selection of goods, moving goods, scanning goods and control in
the kitchens of fast food restaurants
There have been many opposing parties towards CCTV such as the ‘NO CCTV – campaigning
against camera surveillance in the UK and beyond’ group of people who fight to protect privacy.
The
anti-cctv campaigns run through
Aylesbury, Birmingham, Northern Ireland, Oxford, Royston,
Bristol and Nottingham and they are fighting to prove that CCTV is a
threat to privacy and base their arguments on the issue that the public have been ill informed about
CCTV and they are not here to protect us. Although on many occasions their campaigns have proven
effective and have caused a stir in regards to removing CCTV cameras across the globe, there are not
enough people willing to fight with them for the removal.
Although many people are fighting against CCTV it’s hard to tell whether they are fighting a losing
battle, due to the amount of research that has been discussed earlier I think it would be best to say that
CCTV will be embedded within society for a long time until strong legal action is taken against it.