CCTV surveillance: Enhancing Safety and Efficiency – Part 1

Did you know that there are about 770 million cameras in use, with 54% of these being in China?

Did you know that the heaviest surveilled cities aren’t in the world's top 20 most populated cities?

Do you know that increased dominance and capabilities of CCTV surveillance could make society safer and more efficient?

On 28th February 2018, Superintendent Adamu Seidu made known at the memorial service held for one Lebanese Alhaji Safieddine, who was killed in a robbery incident at the Heavy Industrial area in Tema. Superintendent Adamu said I was sure I was going to make some arrest, but at the scene, when I turned left, turned right, there was no CCTV camera, and immediately, I knew evidence would be a problem.

Analyzing 251 crimes recorded by British Transport Police, CCTV was available to investigators in 45% of cases and judged helpful.

Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the movement is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point-to-point (P2P), point to- multipoint (P2MP), or mesh wired or wireless links.

Surveillance of the public using CCTV is common in many areas worldwide. In recent years, body-worn video cameras have been introduced as a new form of management. Often used in law enforcement, with cameras on a police officer’s chest or head.

In industrial plants, CCTV equipment may be used to observe parts of a process from a central control room. For example, when the environment is not suitable for humans.

About 65% of CCTV cameras in the world are installed in Asia. In 2018, China was reported to have a huge surveillance network of over 170 million CCTV cameras, with 400 million new cameras expected to be installed in the next three years, many of which will use facial recognition technology.

In the United States, there were an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras in 2011. Video surveillance has been common in the United States since the 1990s; for example, one manufacturer reported net earnings of $120 million in 1995. With lower cost and easy installation, sales of home security cameras increased in the early 21st century. Following the September 11th attacks, video surveillance in public places became more common to deter future terrorist attacks.

Under the Homeland Security Grant Program. Government grants are available for cities to install surveillance camera networks. In 2009, an estimated 15,000 CCTV systems were in Chicago; many were linked to an integrated camera network. New York City's Domain Awareness System has 6,000 video surveillance cameras. There are over 4,000 cameras on the subway system.

According to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests, the total number of local government-operated CCTV cameras was around 52,000 in the UK. The CCTV user group estimated that there were about 1.5 million private and local government CCTV cameras in city centers, stations, airports, and significant retail areas in the UK.

Research conducted by Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice indicates a survey of all Scottish local authorities identified that there are over 2,200 public space CCTV cameras in Scotland.

Residential video surveillance cameras can deter criminals from entering the area, prevent crimes, and help solve crimes by providing valuable evidence to the police.

In Canada, a “Project SCRAM” initiative was introduced to register and help community members voluntarily identify and register their residential video surveillance equipment through a simple, secure, confidential online form. It prevents crime on three levels.

In Ghana, the government is aiming to install 10,000 close circuit television cameras by the end of the year 2021, according to Ghanaian Times.

The growth of CCTV has been slowing in recent years. The deployment of this technology has facilitated a significant increase in state surveillance, a substantial rise in advanced social monitoring and control methods, and a host of crime prevention measures throughout the world.

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