Video+surveillance+-+sophie

Big Brother is Watching you!

Video Surveillance is the term used to describe the system of watching the public through image only cameras.

Advanced CCTV = **D**igital **V**ideo **R**ecorders
 * CCTV** = **C**losed-**c**ircuit **t**ele**v**ision
 * the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors.
 * often used in banks, casinos, airports, military installations, and convenience stores
 * also trying to be used for long distance education
 * may operate continuously or only as required to monitor a particular event (time frame)
 * advanced recording sensors for motion or sound triggers
 * greater capacity of recording

Public Surveillance is very common in the UK, where there are reportedly more cameras per person than in any other country in the world.

**Debate** security versus privacy.

CCTV used to film launch sites (Rockets) in order to identify possible malfunctions.
 * larger rockets are often fitted with CCTV allowing pictures of stage separation to be transmitted back to earth by radio link

Olean, New York was the first US city with CCTV.
 * September 1968
 * in main business street to fight crime
 * Olean Police Department received images through radio lines
 * forefront of crime-fighting technology

later on very common in banks and stores to discourage theft, by recording evidence of criminal activit

The first place to use CCTV in the United Kingdom was King's Lynn, Norfolk

In recent decades, especially with general crime fears growing in the 1990s and 2000s, public space use of surveillance cameras has taken off, especially in some countries such as the UK

In the UK
 * Government Facilities
 * Security in banks
 * Today, systems cover most town and city centres, and many stations, car-parks and estates
 * In 2002 Michael McCahill and Clive Norris of UrbanEye estimated the number of surveillance cameras in private premises in London is around 500,000 and the total number of cameras in the UK is around 4,200,000
 * There are over 2,200 public space CCTV cameras in Scotland
 * The UK has one camera for every 14 people (This figure does not include smaller surveillance systems)
 * There is little evidence that CCTV deters crime
 * In 2008 a report by UK Police Chiefs concluded that only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV
 * In London, a Police report showed that in 2008 only one crime was solved per 1000 cameras
 * Cameras have also been installed on all public transport in the hope of deterring crime and in mobile police surveillance vans, often with automatic licence plate recognition.
 * In some cases CCTV cameras have become a target of attacks
 * Industrial processes that take place under conditions dangerous for humans are today often supervised by CCTV
 * he usage of CCTV in such processes is sometimes required by law
 * In October 2009, an "Internet Eyes" website was announced which would pay members of the public to view CCTV camera images from their homes and report any crimes they witnessed. The site aimed to add "more eyes" to cameras which might be insufficiently monitored, but civil liberties campaigners criticised the idea as "a distasteful and a worrying development"

Hackers and guerilla artists have exposed the vulnerabilities of the video systems in an act dubbed "video sniffing". They have crossed feeds, uploaded their own video feeds and used the video footage for artistic purposes. (ISSUE!!!)

Safety
 * CCTV on public transport allows the driver to make sure that all passengers are clear of the door to before closing them.
 * CCTV may also alert the driver to potential troublemakers, especially on double decked busses.
 * Operators of an amusement park ride may use a CCTV system to observe that people are not endangered by starting the ride.
 * A CCTV camera and dashboard monitor can make reversing a vehicle safer, if it allows the driver to observe objects or people not otherwise visible.
 * Hidden CCTV's could be hacked and used for criminal purposes, i.e. using the ATM camera to capture people's PIN codes


 * = Pro ||= Con ||
 * = Allows for Public Crime Fighting ||= Can infringe on Privacy ||
 * = Social Control measure ||= BIG BROTHER!!! ||
 * = Swift Post even investigations due to hard evidence ||= Bad quality images may lead to a false lead ||

Unless physically protected, CCTV cameras have been found to be vulnerable against a variety of (mostly illegal) tactics:
 * Some people will deliberately destroy cameras. Some outdoor cameras, such as those employed by the Chicago Police Department, have bullet-resistant housing, but the glass and the actual technology is vulnerable.
 * Spraying substances over the lens can make the image too blurry to see.
 * Lasers can blind or damage them. However, since most lasers are monochromatic, colour filters can reduce the effect of laser pointers. However filters will also impair image quality and overall light sensitivity of cameras. Also, complete protection from infrared, red, green, blue and UV lasers would require use of completely black filters, rendering the camera useless.
 * For wireless networks, broadcasting a signal at the same frequency of the CCTV network is reportedly able to jam it