Pros and Cons of Concealed Video Surveillance in Private Spaces
By Ryan Karpilo
RKDefense.com
We live in interesting times, which is at least partly due to the fact that technology has extensively penetrated our modern existence. There was a time when hidden video surveillance used to be only limited to public spaces, for obvious reasons of security. Private video surveillance was the province of law keepers, used to monitor gangsters, criminals and terrorists. But today, concealed video surveillance in private spaces is no longer unusual.
This kind of surveillance is usually carried out through a video camera that looks like a normal household object, like a clock or a vase. The video camera is cleverly concealed to give maximum vision without the risk of the subject being monitored detecting it.
Concealed video surveillance has made it possible for busy parents to keep an eye on their children when left alone at home. It is also used to monitor nannies, or caregivers to the unwell or elderly so as to ensure that there is no abuse. Pet monitoring using this technology can also be useful, so that appropriate measures can be taken in case of destructive behavior.
Since the surveillance is covert, the subjects monitored can be seen in their natural behavior. Being unaware of being watched, they do not feel the need to conceal their intentions and reveal their true selves easily. Most hidden video cameras disguised as normal objects are extremely easy to install inside the home.
Video cameras concealed or placed in disguise in the exterior of the house make it difficult for intruders to know if or not they are being watched. Such surveillance increases the sense of security for the homeowner, because an alarm can be raised before any harm takes place. Moreover, a vulnerable person home alone can identify a person at the door clearly before allowing him or her inside. This kind of surveillance can also be used at a theft deterrent if it is installed outside office premises.
But there are those that raise privacy concerns, saying that covert video surveillance strikes at the root of privacy rights. A person could easily use them on his or her spouse, or any other member of the family. An employer could mount such surveillance on unsuspecting employees, thus infringing on their basic rights.
Some of the currently available video surveillance equipment is also connected live on the internet. This means one can see what is happening in one's home behind one's back by simply logging on to a website. This monitoring could turn into an obsession and affect one's professional life. Watching recorded tapes of activities could be a good option in this case, if the perceived risk of missing live coverage is minimal.
How CCTV Cameras Helped Catch a Brutal Killer
By Ryan Karpilo
RKDefense.com
England has installed the largest CCTV camera network in the world in their efforts to reduce crime. Over 2.5 million of these cameras keep their unblinking eyes on storefronts and businesses on major streets in every city throughout the nation, with over 150,000 in London alone. In the case of one brutal killing, the idea worked.
When a sex shop on Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth didn't reopen after lunch, police forced the front door and found the body of the store manager. Adam Shaw had been stabbed repeatedly, at least 24 times to the face and torso. Blood splattered the floor and walls of the shop, and at least some must have sprayed the killer.
Trails of bloody footprints with a distinctive tread pattern crisscrossed the floor. They overlapped in front of the sink in the back of the store, where more traces showed the killer had washed the blood off prior to leaving the scene. But rather than exit through that front and only door onto a busy street, the killer had ripped the wood frame from some ductwork and escaped out the back.
Obviously, the killer was the shop's last customer. Although two CCTV cameras were positioned over a pub across the street from the store, neither had a direct view of the sex shop's front door. So police compared the film from both cameras, frame by frame, to find the person who exited one camera's field of vision without entering the other's.
This examination identified a young man wearing a leather jacket and sneakers, closely examining each store as he walked past, before he vanished between the two cameras. But although the police were able to retrace the youth's loping strides all the way up the street as he approached the sex shop, the cameras never got a good view of his face, and appeals to the public didn't produce results.
So the police turned to their next line of investigation: the bloody footprints. Through the distinctive tread pattern, they identified the brand of shoes and their size, then contacted the manufacturer and distributors to trace all shoes of that size sold in the area.
If it had happened in the movies, it would have been considered unbelievable. But the first shoe owner police investigated was ex-soldier Terry Gibbs, age 19. His distinctive gait identified him as the man on the CCTV camera films and he also owned an identical leather jacket. When examined, the jacket revealed traces of Adam Shaw's blood. But even before the lab returned results, Gibbs confessed, adding that the shop's till contained only about $50.
At trial, Gibbs received life imprisonment.
To see a full line of RKDefense Surveillance Products please see the following:
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