The World of Surveillance
The world of surveillance has never been busier as the demand for cameras which scan the streets, houses and shops increases year on year. There is a ‘very best’ and a ‘very worst’ aspect to the surveillance camera. At its very best it can help police solve the nastiest of crimes and potentially call a halt to a terrorist attack, At its very worst it can be intrusive and impact on the daily lives of unsuspecting citizens. No one could doubt the value of the surveillance camera on a railway station platform at midnight, but can they be justified for prying into the private lives of peoples? The civil liberties lobby has as good an argument as the police and the security forces.
However for most of us we only really consider the surveillance camera when thinking about the home security issue. There may have been a string of burglaries in the neighbourhood, so a new camera security system may be something to consider. The cost of the new systems has dropped considerably over the years possibly due to digital technology. The systems can be bought in any big hardware supermarket, and although you only get what you pay for, the cheaper systems can be adequate for the job.
What is more important is the placing of the surveillance camera, and any expert in the subject will tell you to have the camera pointing away from the house not towards it. See the back of someone breaking a window is not really much use, whereas seeing them climb over the garden wall, full face on, is very handy in the identification process. The positioning of any camera is vital and there may be a need to have several cameras in positions which overlap, or are trained on one aspect of the property such as a garage. The number of cameras used obviously pushes the cost up but insurance companies definitely look favourably on a property which has a security system in place, and that reflects on the premiums.
With the advent of the cheaper home surveillance system has come the ‘do it yourself’ installation. There needs to be some thought about how good you are with electrics before going into a self installation system. After all you don’t want it going off at all times of the night because it was wired up wrong! There are experts around and they would be only too happy to offer an estimate on fixing the system up properly. They may also have some better idea of the placement of the cameras and whole lot more.
Often people in this business are retired police officers so they know a thing or two about security and surveillance. There’s no doubt that a surveillance system for a house is a valuable asset as long as it’s genuine. There was a spate of ‘lookalike’ dummy cameras on the market, but it didn’t take long for our crafty burglar to work that one out. In the right hands the surveillance camera is a valuable tool in beating and preventing crime at all levels.