During a debate on whether cameras for surveillance should be located in clubs, bars, airports, libraries, stores and schools which are all example of public places, some individuals are more at home with it, having a feeling of increased security having the cameras on, while advocates of privacy and other citizens have a feeling of nervousness in relation to the fact
Read full articleof being under surveillance coverage during their public outings (Li, n.p.).
When people walk down streets, drive in their cars, or hang out with their girlfriends and boyfriends, public placed cameras will monitor them.
Individual’s private lives are completed picturesquely, by this. Everyone has a private life they don’t need other people or government to know off. But they are protected through public surveillance as investigations are aided by surveillance cameras in public.
Public places surveillance cameras are not prohibited by any existent laws. Of the number of citizens reviewed, above half of the number have the view that, having cameras in places deemed not private like in businesses, parking lots would not constitute a privacy invasion.
For facts, public area cameras for surveillance laws are not widespread, and can be found only in a few states within United States i.e. laws regulating video surveillance public usage.
In New York for example, video surveillance can only be used as an investigation part into alleged crimes, after a warrant has been granted by local authorities.
On the other hand, placing unseen security cameras within public areas like changing rooms, bathrooms and other areas where individuals reasonably expect privacy, is not allowed in many ways.
The attainment of or having freedom truly cannot be possible without limits reasonably, and a democracy deemed true cannot be possible without regulations and laws democratically.
This makes it imperative for governments to draw out all powers to give citizens protection against uprisings, robbery, kidnapping, shooting, murderers and terrorist attacks (EssayShark, 1).
Other than that, democracy may turn to anarchy, wartime anxiety and tensions may change peace, and free expression and speech may change to a burden for people in the country soon.
Despite this, there is still believe by some people that public placed cameras represent nothing short of a regime of totalitarian tendencies, that privacy of people is infringed on, and that such devices are not needed in true freedom. In fact, ideas of this nature are groundless.
Thus, surveillance in public places by cameras are not an infringement on the privacy of people, but rather offers protection to the civilian population and eliminates terrorist attacks by enforcing laws.
In the first place, the reasons behind the coming into being of the common use of CCTV, surveillance and security cameras should be found essentially with regards to countries in the West part of the globe.
“After the terrorist attacks of September 11, surveillance camera markets
boomed throughout the world and United States”. Allison Linn stated. To interpret this, anxiety and fear, sum up the core reason behind the need of cameras by people.
There arose a realization from people that, security is not guaranteed by laws, citizens are not always protected by government who needed help from the use of some tools, which also enforced laws.
Cameras in some public places, squares, parks and streets, of course create illusions of the absence of privacy, that city life is equal to aquarium life, where curious observers constantly observe fishes.
In addition, people are intimidated by facial recognition since hiding from
“omniscience eye” of security and police services is literally impossible.
Activists for civil liberties agitate against the use of cameras for facial recognition, because they opine that, such ways kill human dignity, privacy and democracy, and rather creates a society via the dystopian novels example, in which “Big Brother” watches people everywhere and constantly.
This notion is incorrect, nonetheless. “Software for facial recognition and some technologies make images from security cameras more important to enforcing laws,” argues Heather Kelly.
It is not in the interest of anyone to control lives or harass civilians; law and security is the sole reason for installing cameras.
In the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, for example, very
crucial information was successfully obtained by security operatives on the suspects who used homemade bombs to kill many people.
After three days only, those responsible for the act of terrorism was known by the FBI, due to the sifting through of a huge footage coming from non-
governmental security cameras, surveillance cameras of government and bystanders smart phones imagery shots. Therefore public placed cameras have many reasons behind them.
Public surveillance cameras are now employed as a tool primarily in many countries in population movements monitoring and in the prevention of terrorism and crime, as said earlier within both the public and private sectors.
The assessment of the roles, surveillance video systems and CCTV cameras play to improve security and safety follows, together with other myriad functions presented to operators of the integrated analytics and AI (IFSEC Global, n.p.).
In countries like United States, who have advanced technologically, the usage of security cameras has brought more positives than destruction due to the mechanism it presents security agencies and police to detect individuals who have plans of doing bad things within the public space.
The reliance on security cameras within public places is seen by some people as a privacy invasion as opposed to being a measure of security.
But the notion that cameras for surveillance are a great idea and ensure safety of the populace is highly supported. One reason out of many that makes surveillance cameras a great idea is that, laws are enforced with its help, a typical example of this occurs during the parking of vehicles in public places by people after outings and then happen to pack in spots which are
handicapped, where no eyes are watching (Garcia, n.p.).
If they knew that they are being watched due to adequate security cameras, they will refrain from parking in those handicap spots.
A second example is, intentionally, people entering shops in order to shop lift, this crime will be greatly reduced as there will be a more cautious movement from people to avoid doing things that would bring them trouble.
Home security is one other major use of cameras for surveillance. This stems from the fact that, some people, due to their busy nature fail to monitor old folks and children, as they work almost all the time. Babysitters and nannies are hired and through the use of security cameras, these busy people can with just pushing a button see what is going on in their homes on a computer or smart phone.
Also as talked about earlier, in case of crimes, where police have no clues in apprehending culprits, they could go back and study recorded movements on the camera, which definitely and possibly will give them ideas or faces of those responsible for the crime for them to be arrested.
There may be a few disadvantages in the use of surveillance cameras, like tampering from individuals and failure of watching diverse locations simultaneously due to their numbers and lastly the cameras inability to see blind spots i.e. areas beyond reach but to conclude, public placed cameras are not an infringement on the privacy of people, as the sole reason in deploying
such implements is to achieve a maintenance of civilian security, democracy and freedom.
Facial recognition should not scare people as it only affects terrorists and criminals. Those who are not planning violent schemes should have a thankful perspective with regards to law enforcing tools like security cameras.
Works Cited
Li, Amanda. “Top 8 Pros and Cons of Surveillance Cameras in Public Places - Reolink Blog.”
Reolink, Reolink, 20 Dec. 2021, https://reolink.com/pros-cons-of-surveillance-cameras-in-public-places/. EssayShark. “Essay on Privacy Rights: Cameras in Public Places.” EssayShark, 1 June 2021, https://essayshark.com/blog/essay-on-privacy-rights-cameras-in-public-places/.
IFSEC Global. “Role of CCTV Cameras : Public, Privacy and Protection.” IFSEC Global Security and Fire News and Resources, IFSEC Global | Security and Fire News and Resources, 20 Jan. 2022, https://www.ifsecglobal.com/video surveillance/role-cctv-cameras-public-privacy-protection/.
Garcia, Steve. “Surveillance Cameras in Public Places Free Essay Example.” StudyMoose, 22 Feb. 2021, https://studymoose.com/surveillance-cameras-in-public-22479-new-essay.
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