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Impact of CCTV quality on crime

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Thousands upon thousands of CCTV cameras has been installed nationwide and mostly for the reason of securing an area such an establishment, a residence, a park, or a street in a barangay. The purpose is to deter criminal activities and if such activity happens, the CCTV system should then be able to record and identify those involved.

A few days ago, July 25, 2016, there was road related crime that happened in Quiapo, Manila specifically in the street called P. Casal. The crime was recorded on CCTV.

Road Rage

A Hyundai Eon car pulled over beside a guy riding his bicycle. Seemingly in the footage, there has been an incident prior to the scene. The car owner stepped out and immediately started punching the other guy who was quick to defend himself. A little over a minute into the fight, the biker seems to have control over the car owner and a few moments after that the biker let go of his attacker. When the car owner got into his car the biker was keen to talk to him through the other side of the car and seems to have shook hands with him. The biker then goes on his way walking with his bike but only after a few meters away from the incident the car owner stepped out again from his car but this time carrying a gun. He popped a bullet that took down the biker and he made another shot to the head then he hurriedly drove away with his car.

There were several witnesses in the area but the most important witness was the CCTV camera installed on the electric post. After this incident, the footage was acquired from the CCTV camera and sure enough the crime was recorded and you can really see what happened.

The flaw in social media

A very popular social media channel posted the footage and sure enough people were outraged by what happened. In just a matter of several hours, people online were able to pinpoint the owner of the car as the conduction sticker were reported to the police by a witness. And again, sure enough,  people were quick to judge the identified car owner. This guy named Nestor Punzalan immediately went to the authority as soon as he realized he was being pointed to the crime. As it turned out, Mr. Punzalan may not be the person seen on the CCTV. Although the social media channel who posted his picture apologized to Mr. Punzalan, the damage to his dignity has been done and his security has been definitely compromised.

The impact of technology used in CCTV

As most of you who made it this far in reading this article would think, the problem lies on the quality of the footage that the camera recorded in identifying the criminal. If the CCTV camera at least has a decent quality, the car owner and even the conduction sticker would have been easily identified right away and would have prevented anyone in social media to post the wrong guy in public.

Currently, 3 days after the incident, the killer is still on the loose. He would have been apprehended immediately had it been that the CCTV camera were able to provide a clear footage of the crime.

Right Security Solutions is providing a real solution to unseen and neglected problems that arise in situations like this. We always calculate and assess the necessary requirements of a project that aids you in any future problems.

Call us today and have a peace of mind in your security needs.

CCTV – Closed Circuit Television

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Closed circuit television, better known as CCTV, is technology designed for visual surveillance. Its purpose is to monitor activities in a number of environments. It works by way of a dedicated communication link between a monitor and cameras (also known as a fixed link.)

Up until a decade ago CCTV didn’t get much notice. Now it’s use has grown exponentially. The Philippines is now a country starting to fully implement CCTV systems, finding the monitoring systems useful for public facilities, residential subdivisions, and parking lots.

Many thousands of CCTV cameras, commissioned by public safety organizations, and neighborhood watch or homeowners associations, help reduce safety issues in areas such as buses and terminals, taxis and stands, trains and train stations, phone booths, vending machines and ATM locations. The cities and towns themselves are protecting their major thoroughfares and business districts with CCTV equipment that includes camera capacity for zooming, full tilting, panning and even infrared for night viewing. Hospitals are starting to use closed circuit television products to keep an eye on the interactions between hospitalized children and visiting parents or family members they suspect of molesting or otherwise abusing them.

While the technology was first seen in Britain as a deterrent and watchdog for major crime prevention, its use has increasingly come into play to catch in the act of, or deter from the act, of considerably lesser crimes. Which may or may not be seen as a good thing. The concern here is whether or not “big brother” will start watching. Just how far will they take it?

Where they’ve taken it from is from the prevention of physical assault crime and serious but lesser life threatening crimes such as burglary and car jacking to a current preponderance of smaller infraction oversight and prevention. In the Philippines, it’s not uncommon for CCTV to catch in the act someone whose crime is an attempt to commit a traffic violation, urinate in public, be publicly intoxicated and – horrible of horribles – fail to feed the parking meter. Underage smoking and drinking, use of illegal substances and occasions of sexual and racial harassment have also been exposed through closed circuit television wizardry.

Whether this CCTV craze has really been a significant crime deterrent is hard to say.

Some public safety authorities claim reduction of violent and other crimes as high as 75 percent, stating CCTV as the reason behind this. Others dispute the statistics, stating that the results are flawed due to inept reporting and interpretation. One conjecture is that, because CCTV is much more prevalent in more affluent areas, criminals have merely moved down the road to those lower income areas whose residents and administrators cannot afford the costly CCTV system.

One result of CCTV’s capturing crimes in action is that a preponderance of alleged perpetrators, faced with the knowledge that their criminal actions have been captured on TV, are opting to plead guilty, saving taxpayers the cost of a lengthy trial. While this may be a good thing at first glance, the jury is really still out on whether this is justice served to the “innocent until proven guilty” or not.