The main disadvantage of CCTV cameras is that they do not let people have much privacy. Even I, as a citizen, do not want so many CCTV cameras as "eyes" from the police or government watching me wherever I go to and keep track of the time I am in or out of my house. This will make me feel like a prisoner, who has to be monitored all the time. The massive amount of CCTV cameras around countries like New York have also made people scared of going out, such as Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the NYCLU. Another main disadvantage is the amount of electricity needed to keep the CCTV cameras up and running 24 hours a day and 7 days a week . WIth so many CCTV cameras turned n every single day, the money spent on the electricity to keep them operating will be very expensive. With the economic crisis threatening the financial stability of almost every country, this large amount of money spent may in turn cause more problems to the already disastrous financial crisis. Also another thing I want to point out is that we cannot always depend completely on CCTV cameras for surveillance and security. We sometimes also have to rely on ourselves for our own defense. For example, in MRT stations in Singapore, when one notices a suspicious person that is behaving weirdly or a bag that is left at a corner without anyone that is holding or looking after it, one should always immediately inform the staff there or call the police straight away as the bag may contain a bomb. As we all know, thieves nowadays have many ways to avoid being noticed or followed after they have committed their crimes such as stealing. This can be shown whereby thieves nowadays use gloves so as to not leave any fingerprints behind for the police to follow on their trail. Hence, they may somehow hide their bomb far from the CCTV cameras and the only way left to find these bags is by using the naked eye. Hence, CCTV cameras are only extra pairs o eyes to lock on suspicious people, not always to find suspicious items as they may be hidden by the thieves. People should also not let their guard down just because there are more CCTV cameras added.
Done By:
Reynold Chia (5)
2I
©2009
(P.S. For those who want to sabotage me by editing my post, I have saved a copy of this in my macbook and hence any editing will be overwritten as I can just copy and paste from the document I have saved. It will be copy and pasted from the document I have typed MYSELF, NOT from the Internet. haha :P)
Reynold, very smart...You mentioned all the points, even some that i missed. However, your title is the Disadvantages of haveing CCTY Surveillance. But you also mentioned about the advatages which you should not. Even in your opinions, you mentioned about the advantages. Other than that, i think your post is perfectly well done.
ReplyDeleteCommented by: Chong Zhi Khong (6) 2I
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ReplyDeleteMe too. I did it that way! High 5 :p
ReplyDeleteGood post.Dsagree for the privacy part..as you can infer from the youtube video..we can only see cameras on the roadsides and in suspicious places that police feel that is unsafe and should be monitored so,the police is trying to solve this as tey are aware of this and as more cameras are put up in the world..i feel that judging from the economic evolution the world is undergoing right now..they would be able to find a solution to this problem and the cost of the CCTV cameras may also drop in time to come as it has proved its usefullness and people may allow the prices of the electricity used for monitoring to drop.But,by now,u may be thinking...electricity is a non renewable source,we should save it.Scientists can now use newer alternatives like solar power to solve this and vegetable oil is also currently in test.Even an invention like using water to recharge batteries are also developing.So,i feel that CCTV cameras have more advantages than disadvantages and after saying all this,in my opinion,i feel that the government should continue with the adding of this CCTV cameras in countries such as the united states and paris
ReplyDeleteBy Keefe Neo 2I(20)
(THE COMMENT ABOVE IS MY COMMENT.I DECIDED TO MAKE ANOTHER COMMENT AS I DID NOT STATE MY NAME ABOVE)
Reynold, about your comment that concerns the topic of privacy, even though there is a CCTV surveillance camera monitoring your movements, it is just to monitor if you are safe and away from any harm and instead of thinking just of the disadvantages, you should think on the bright side like preventing crimes and of course as you had said, we should not just depend on just the CCTV surveillance camera but we should also be on the look out as there would be times when the surveillance camera malfunctions. Therefore, the installation of the surveillance camera is just to be on the safe side. As for the financial problems that all the countries throughout the world faces, if the CCTV camera can help prevent crime and terrorism, which can help in parts of boosting the economic by attracting more tourists to that country as tourists will know that the country is safe and go to that the specific country for their holiday, thus, instead of facing the financial problems, which is a short-term problem, the country will solve a bigger long-term problem of facing economy problems. Therefore, we should look at a long-term gain instead of a short-term gain.
ReplyDeleteBy Marcus Yew (18)
Reynold, i do not quite agree of " Even I, as a citizen, do not want so many CCTV cameras as "eyes" from the police or government watching me wherever I go to and keep track of the time I am in or out of my house. This will make me feel like a prisoner, who has to be monitored all the time". It is true that people do not liked to be stalked, however, you know that it is all for your own good. The problem of safety have been getting out of the hands of the police and in order for justice to be done, safety should not be compromised in place of privacy. In fact, there is a saying of if you did not done any wrong deeds, then you need not be guilty of it, need not be afraid of being monitored by cameras as you are not been targeted on. Only people on probation or suspected are being monitored. Besides, the main purpose of it is to monitor the environment of different areas, where places are highly probable for "problems" to happen. It also appear that the police force have to install more CCT as people are unwilling witnesses when it comes to assisting the police on solving crimes, hence, such measures have to be taken. As said that people have to rely on themselves for our own defence, however, we do not have more pairs of eyes we wished to have than we possessed. People also have their point of time where they slackened their defences. People cannot be ALERT all the time. We are not dogs. Hence, this is when CCT comes in handy. When said it is a waste of money to operate these 24/7, we could solve this problems by introducing methods like running it on solar energy rather than electricity. Like this, money could be saved and it is also environment friendly. As saying goes, there is no problem unsolvable, unless, u are not a willing party to it. All problems and minors could be eliminated if we put our brains to work. All in all, safety should not be compromised in place of short- term gains.
ReplyDeleteBy NEO KAI FONG ( 19 )
Who in this blog is sooooo important that the government wants to watch every move it makes? If someone is, then the means is justified. Get over it. Nobody is going to watch EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE. Have you seen recent photos of New York CITY (not a country). Desolated streets during the day and night (obviously being sarcastic). PLEASE, if the government needs to watch your every move, they will do it with or without cameras. If someone is paranoid of being watched doesn't mean everyone is. If you have nothing to hide, how long do you think someone can watch you before it dies of boredom. Power consumption??? Let's make smokers to reduce green house gases!! CCTV equipment power consumption even at a large scale it's not a significant. A normal professional camera consumes less than 3 watts. The PC you are blogging from uses anywhere from 600 to 1200watts. There are by far a lot of other power consuming devices in the planet with far more impact than security cameras. Finally, no one claims that cameras are the absolute solution to crime. Cameras are deterrents and aid the suppression of such acts. Just like fences don't guaranty that someone is not going to trespass, but they help and in many cases are very needed.
ReplyDeleteCORRECTION: Power consumption??? Let's make smokers QUIT SMOKING to reduce green house gases!!
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