Increasingly, the world around us is being monitored and recorded. Not too long ago, if a security camera captured a your image, you were probably committing. Today, surveillance cameras are found in school buses, on college campuses, in cars, and even hidden amidst a household’s decor. Whether surveillance cameras, and the implications of a monitored society are right or wrong, good or bad doesn’t matter: Video surveillance has become necessary part of our lives. While privacy implications have been raised by citizens, companies, and other entities, the current trend is more surveillance, not less.
Let’s face it: The cost of installing a video camera to record a task is minimal when compared to hiring an employee to perform the same task. Not to mention the fact that cameras are reliable, impartial, and financially feasible. Functions once performed by people, like monitoring intersections for traffic violations, can now be simply recorded, freeing up that human resource for other duties where a cameras can’t be used.
To say that surveillance cameras have changed our lives and society is an understatement; think of the numerous instances of fugitives brought to justice or crimes solved due to this silent witness. Television reporters, newspapers, and online news sources document cases on what seems to be a weekly basis.
The media also highlights those “precious moments” that prompts this question:
Are humans really meant to occupy the top rung of the ladder, or is that just a fluke?
Unfortunately, there’s plenty of material…enough to launch several years of 30-minute TV shows depicting our fellow humans behaving like idiots. The following story from the BBC will, no doubt, debut soon:
Craig Moore, 28, of Grampian Way in Thorne, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, admitted damaging property last month. He destroyed the camera using material from his welding job after he was caught in Hyde near Manchester. Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard Moore’s van was caught on the camera before it was attacked. Moore’s actions caused £11,700 of damage to the machine which had flashed at him while he was exceeding the speed limit on Mottram Road on 14 August last year. He claimed he was afraid he would lose his job if he was caught speeding. He already had 10 points on his licence and thought he would receive a driving ban if more were added.
To prevent this, he drove 40 miles out of his way to bomb the camera. Unfortunately, he was caught on camera as he drove up to it in his van…from the front…
