What do you think of the CCTV cameras that cover Middlesborough, England?Can you see something like this in your hometown?
Middleborough’s has a “talking” CCTV system that allows operators to interact with members of the public and reproach misbehaving individuals to stop via a loudspeaker. A CCTV control room has a set of control and management infrastructure that is connecting and supporting the communication systems of the internal and external partners such as shop security, street wardens, traffic wardens, and police. The system raises concerns about the government’s intrusion into people’s civil liberties. While the system bolsters security, the government should be careful with the way the authorities use the cameras, to avoid instances where citizens civil liberties are violated (Cohen 52). The talking cameras are representative of “Scarecrow” policing instead of serving as real policing tools.
Can you see something like this in your hometown?Middleborough has installed talking CCTY cameras that scold offenders. My neighborhood has regular CCTV cameras. Middleborough’s CCTV system allows the operators to communicate immediately with the public. For example, they can challenge offenders for littering, drawing graffiti, or fly tipping.
How does the use of cameras differ from the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of secret phone surveillance—particularly with regard to the control of our everyday lives?
The talking cameras are different from the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of secret phone surveillance in the sense that they are widely installed in public places and are concerned with people’s behavior in public places. On the other hand, the secretive NSA phone surveillance overtly invades people’s privacy and attempts to control their day-to-day lives.
Various measures of preventing crime to improve the safety and security of neighborhoods include alley gates and CCTV cameras (Charrett 89). The proactive collection and sharing of intelligence, as well as evidence that helps in the process of identifying offenders, is part of the measures that play a crucial role in making neighborhoods safer. Authorities can use such intelligence and evidence to support civil and criminal prosecutions. In most instances, the CCTV cameras provide a 24-hour monitoring system, and can link to the neighborhood or town’s police response unit (Charrett 56).
Works Cited
Charrett, Sheldon. Identity, Privacy, And Personal Freedom: Big Brother vs. The New Resistance. Cornwall: Polity 1999. Print.
Cohen, Elliot. Mass Surveillance and State Control: The Total Information Awareness Project. New York: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.
