How Can A Cctv Security System Help?
By Groshan Fabiola
One of the most frequently asked questions about the CCTV system is that inquiring upon its nature. CCTV, short for Closed Circuit Television, is a surveillance technology which monitors a wide range of activities and environments. The CCTV system is based on a communication link between a camera and a specific monitor. Many towns and cities resort to CCTV security systems, which has led to an unprecedented growth in the amount of money spent on surveillance systems. CCTV security systems are now used in public areas such as city centers, parking lots, public facilities, buses, taxis, phone booths etc. Actually, statistics say that the surveillance industry grows with up to twenty percent every year. CCTV security systems are also installed on private property, not just public places.

Evidence of domestic violence can be collected by means of a CCTV system, installing a camera inside the victims' homes. A similar type of surveillance is used inside hospitals in cases of supposedly abused children, in order to monitor their parents' activities and behavior.

In the early stages, CCTV security systems were used to decrease crime rate such as burglaries or car thefts. More recently, CCTV systems pick up on more minor offenses such as urinating in public, drunkenness, traffic violation. Those who evade the meters in a parking lot can also be caught on camera. Underage smoking, sexual or racial harassment, drug use, all of these crimes are the subject of CCTV system monitoring. Public order is now more likely to be kept with the use of CCTV security systems, which have become the solution to the serious problem that is urban dysfunction. But the police are not the only promoters of security through CCTV systems. Politicians also encourage installation of such systems in order to control crime.

The CCTV system also has its opponents, but whenever these critics speak up, people who are frightened by crime consider them to be nothing but enemies of everyone's best interest.

As far as the technology used in a CCTV system goes, it suffices to say that some of these systems can be very sophisticated. They can be assisted by a computer, can detect motion, can have night vision and images of excellent clarity. Another amazing thing about the cameras on a CCTV security system is that they can focus on a single object from a crowded environment and follow that one object. They provide high definition images from which faces can be recognized. The time needed for a system to identify one face out of several thousands

is less than a second. The system is mostly used in airports where terrorists may enter a country.

Since the CCTV cameras have often become targets of attacks, more and more of them now have a casing which is bullet proof, or are covered by other cameras installed nearby.

The question still remains whether CCTV security systems reduce crime. The answer is that they are most likely to prevent it. Those in favor of such surveillance systems have at least one argument. CCTV systems reduce the number of the so-called opportunistic crimes, that is the crimes committed when people decide to take advantage of a certain situation. In the same way, crimes in parking lots have reportedly dropped by almost ninety percent.

The conclusion is that, although CCTV security systems may not be as efficient as their supporters portray them, at least they appeal to common people, who now feel much safer when going shopping, for instance.

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