The Use of CCTV - Essay Example

LAW By + Introduction Security concerns have turned out to the day to day talks in different world’s media stations, major global institutions among other top performing organizations. Security threats have deemed progress in the top performing firms, by diminishing their abilities to realize their set objectives, goals, and aims (Ramshaw, 2012). This is due to the reason that they end up directing their attention and resources towards improving their environmental security, which exhibits a lot of uncertainties. The high levels of insecurity have made the world’s nations recruit more security personnel; police and armed forces, to inhibit the high levels of security threats. Insecurity has also led to increasing in innovations levels in technology leading to the emergence of CCTV cameras to aid in security. In this law essay, I am going to compare the use of CCTV cameras and police in providing security, as well as determining the one that is more efficient in reducing urban crime. Urban Crime As I have stated in my introduction, in the current 21st Century, high levels of urban crime are reported, both on daily and weekly basis. The crime rate has shot up, and it’s funny that the offense offenders find both day and night as providing conducive conditions for them to undertake their criminal activities. The reverse is true when comparing to the 19th Century when illegal activities get only associated with darkness, night hours. There are a lot of urban crimes, and the hooligans involved in these take advantage of the bigger and congested population along the streets in towns and other city buildings. Among the urban crimes include assault, rape, theft, robbery, burglary, drug trafficking, human trafficking, human molestation and pick pocketing among others witnessed in different cities. Taking the latest Olympic Games held in London as an example, some crime issues were reported, and they exceeded the former reports made concerning the same. Criminologists claimed that this happened so because the hooligans took advantage of the high population made up of tourists, fans, among other athletes from different regions of the world. The use of policing to provide security, as well as controlling criminology, has gotten critics from various individuals who express high levels of dissatisfaction with them. Others have proposed and implemented the use of CCTV cameras other than the regular policing. The uses of two different methods of security provision have led to rising in various reactions from the public, about their cost-effectiveness and privacy. The Use of CCTV The use of video surveillance cameras in the public places has faced some reactions from the public about the levels to which it enhances security levels. There is a need of having surveillance cameras in public areas since they increase the safety levels in the public ("Newport Pagnell services to receive new CCTV cameras", 2014). This gets enabled since the public’s property are protected as well as preventing crimes with the surveillance cameras. This get based on the fact that rarely will individual opt to commit a crime when they have the knowledge of their actions undergoing recording on camera. It is also true to argue that the use of surveillance cameras can improve the process of identifying the criminals. They can help the police prevent crimes from taking place and can get in a position to quickly solve the emerging criminal cases with material evidence. Below diagrams are some of the images of security surveillance cameras, retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=what+are+the+advantages+of+using+CCTV+cameras+over+police+in+providing+security&rlz=1C1VSNE_enKE617KE617&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=flxrVeSuCaTg7QbHqIPIDQ&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw&dpr=1 Another effectiveness associated with the use of video cameras in public areas is that they deter people from committing a crime. Whenever the hooligans are aware that video surveillance cameras get placed and recording the events taking place, they are likely to commit fewer crimes. This is due to the reason that they have the prior knowledge of being recorded as well filmed the whole time. Using shoplifting an example, the thugs get rest assured that recordings of their actions are in progress, and hardly see the worth of going to jail due to shoplifting. The use of video surveillance cameras assists the law enforcers in stopping crime as well as helping to prevent a terrorist attack in the extreme. In some public places, such as streets in the cities, and other market places, there are high populations and deployment of regular police may seem to get ineffective. This reason makes the use of CCTV cameras to be more efficient since they cover areas with dense populations, can as well be used in courts as evidenced by the crimes that are committed. The use of video surveillance cameras in the public increases the level of public’s confidence towards their safety ("Extreme CCTV Gets Contract for Stockholm Traffic Cameras", 2004). This gets based on the argument that everyone will get the feeling of being watched, hence protected against any threat that may result from terror actions and attack. To some extent, they are also believed to have cost-effectiveness since they save on the resources that could have gotten spent in making criminal investigations. Another evidence of effectiveness gets seen in cases of abduction. In this particular situation, the video plays a significant role in immediately tracking down the victim, and to some extent may prevent death. The Use of Police Patrols As discussed in the earlier paragraphs, there has been a general increase in the recruitment levels done by major nations of the world. This is to increase the security levels by curbing those threats resulting from terror attacks, both from the international terrorists and the local hooligans (Curtin, Hayslett-mccall & Qiu, 2010). The use of police patrols too has experienced some reactions from the public, and a lot of comparisons of its effectiveness get made about the use of CCTV cameras. The purposes of police patrols, unlike CCTV cameras, have gotten effectiveness when it comes to the public rights (Fan, 2012). This means that the public are left to undertake their rights as long as they don’t indulge themselves in criminal activities. The opposite is true when it comes to the use of video surveillance cameras which infringes on the public’s civil liberty. This claim is true since by undertaking video surveillance, even the most innocent who get themselves involved in nothing criminal, in public areas, get taken through the same. Therefore, the use of police patrol seems to be more strategic since, they are only concerned with those who are either planning or already getting involved in criminal activities. The use of police patrol exhibits a lot of cost effectiveness since, comparatively to video surveillance, the expenses undergone is less (Klukkert, Ohlemacher & Feltes, 2009). The only cost suffered by the government is that of training the security personnel and later giving them their monthly salaries and allowances. They are all made accountable as well as responsible for their different areas of allocation by their safety commanders (Lamboo, 2010). The reverse get realized when it comes to CCTV which gets associated with a lot of faults, and it’s made responsible to no one. The use of police is more effective than CCTV usage since they possess a lot of dynamism and mobility, hence high response rate. The police are equipped with mobile phones for communication and making alerts to one another whenever they detect some crime in particular areas (Larson, Lewis, Kay, & Kelso, 2011). This means that the use of police patrols has gained a lot of trust from the public, and whenever they are seen around, the members of the general feel bore safer. Their presences too, deter other criminal activities from taking place, and this reason increase the public’s confidence towards safety (Liliane, Murakami, Márcio & Natália de, 2012). The use of police patrols increases the level of government’s trust by the entire public (Lynch, 2007). When citizens see the cops patrolling around, they feel that the particular government in power is caring for their wellbeing and hence the reason of beefing up security. The citizens, therefore, feel not betrayed by their government as well as increasing their support towards the other different sectors of the government. For this reason, there exists a more state of agreement as well as harmony between the state and the citizens. The use of police patrols in ensuring the public’s security has proved to alleviate the levels of revenue collection by the state from the citizens (Moonen, Cattrysse, & Oudheusden, 2007). As the citizens feel that the government in question gets concerned with their safety as well as their general interests, they get motivated towards paying taxes. It is indeed through these taxes collected that the government gets in a position to run most of its functions. It is therefore; right to say that the use of police patrol in providing the public’s security is cot efficient as well as more strategic (Osborne, 2014). Despite the above-raised appraisals for the use of police in the process of stabilizing the nation’s security, there are some critics that arise, on the same matter. It gets often claimed that the police are corrupt and are prone to receiving bribes from the criminals. When they receive the bribes, they end up creating a little response to the alerts towards the crimes committed by the particular criminals. The agreement is mad on grounds that they give the criminals room to perform their ill actions until when they are through and have escaped away is when the police emerge to the scene. Due to this fact, parts of the public tend to lack confidence towards the security provided by the police. Police patrols get always limited by the different climatic and weather conditions (Rubinstein, 2006). Police are just like the other human beings and they too tend consider their environmental and another weather safety (Waddington, Adang, Baker, Birkbeck, Feltes, Gabaldón, Machado & Stenning, 2009). Taking an example of a rainy night, nearly all the police cannot patrol in the heavy rain, but instead relax in their police stations. It is at this particular time that most of the thugs plan to undertake their criminal activities since they also have that knowledge of police absence. Conclusion Both the use of CCTV camera surveillance and police patrol have significantly improved the levels of security to the public. Each of these two methods has different effectiveness as well as strategic benefits in stabilizing nation’s security. However the public feels safer if police officers are in the streets and do not like their daily lives being monitored by the CCTV cameras. Police usage seems to be more efficient than the use of CCTV surveillance since police get used in different areas, including those remote areas where the use of video camera surveillance is characterized by high levels of faults. Finally, the use of video surveillance isles cost effective due to its high initial installation cost and other maintainable and operational costs. 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