You Are Being Watched
Alison MillerIssue date: 1/21/10 Section: News
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And that's only the beginning of surveillance in our daily lives.
According to Tanya Schmit, a sales consultant at Southwest Access and Video Corp. in Phoenix, if you leave your house, you are bound to be on camera at least once a day.
But that's a low figure. Schmit estimates 55 to 75 percent of all commercial buildings have some kind of surveillance system. So, if you plan a trip to the mall, be prepared to be "on camera in every store you walk into," Schmit says.
People living in metropolitan areas have an even greater chance of being caught on camera. In 2005, the New York Civil Liberties Union reported nearly 4,500 surveillance cameras visible from street level in Manhattan, and in London, approximately 500,000 cameras are placed throughout the city watching for signs of illicit activity.
In the Valley, students are caught on camera almost everywhere they go; almost every major college campus in the area has at least a few cameras on campus. The City of Tempe has cameras stationed throughout downtown; the images from which are broadcast on the internet.
Bottom line: it is getting increasingly difficult for people to be anonymous in today's world and the debate of safety versus security is becoming an extremely prevalent topic with the growing use of video and camera surveillance.
The Growth of Surveillance
Video and camera surveillance started to become popular in the late 1990s, but the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks brought surveillance to a whole new level.
According to Schmit, "that's when the industry really started booming."
After 9/11, Schmit said there was not only an increase in camera sales, but huge advancements were made in the analytics of cameras and what they do.
"They can make cameras nowadays that can see out of an area the size of a pinhole," Schmit said.
Schmit says the most recognizable type of camera is the bullet-style camera, which is a large sized camera that is clearly pointed in one direction. Another common camera is the dome style, which hides the direction the camera is facing, so that a person doesn't know which way the camera is shooting and what it's looking at.
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Daryl Cummings
posted 1/23/10 @ 1:38 PM MST
I think that video surveillance cameras have good points and bad points. The bad part is that is emanates privates. The good points are is help with safely for example say a person try's to blow up an airplane and he walks in the bathroom and lock the door with a hidden cameras in the bathroom we could see what he'll doing and stop him or we could see crime activity like bank robbery drug sells and car chases and street prostitutes. (Continued…)
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