gooWeek 3:
Improving City Security: Krieger style
With the
worldwide increase in smartphone use, Krieger’s idea of urban tomography is an
interesting and useful concept. This application could be used to help make a record
of urban life, create a personal documentary, or, as Krieger suggested, used
for security purposes. I believe this could very well be its most useful
application. Many large cities use thousands of surveillance cameras to monitor
city streets, parks, and business centers. These camera systems cost millions
of tax payer’s dollars and have proven to not be so effective.
London is
known for being one of the most watched cities on the planet. The use of these
cameras (also known as closed circuit television, ie CCTV) was first
implemented in the 1970’s to counter terrorism. Now in the twenty first century
over 10000 camera’s city wide are used to monitor the streets. These cameras
are not the best for preventing crimes and stopping them in the moment, but can
play a key role in the investigation of crime scenes. Recorded crime scenes and
surrounding areas can be reviewed by detectives and suspects can be monitored.
The first article below questions these cameras’ actual effectiveness. They
state that in one month these cameras helped capture just 8 out of 269
robberies. This led people to question the value of this 200 million dollar
investment, with the former shadow home secretary stating “It should provoke a
long overdue rethink on where the crime prevention budget is being spent”. I
believe one problem with these mounted cameras is simply the lack of cameras. Slick
criminals could become familiar with the camera’s angles and with a little
planning could pull off crimes completely unseen. CCTV supporters will claim that
more cameras are the solution, but with the population already questioning the
cameras effectiveness, this may not be the best solution.
This is
where I believe the smartphone urban tomography application could make its
debut as a surveillance aid. If even a small portion of the millions of
citizens that live in London allowed police to use their smartphones, this
application may prove more useful than the 200 million dollar CCTV system
already in place.
It is true that the cameras have not caught as many criminals as they were intended to do but we need to take into account that the cameras must be preventing crime. For the criminals who don’t know where every single camera is in the city, they are going to reconsider any act that they had planned on for fear of getting caught. And is it really the petty criminals that the cameras were installed to catch. The article points out that more than 70% of murder investigations have been solved with the help of the CCTV investigation strategy. If these cameras can solve murder cases I think it is worth all the money the citizens are putting into the cameras. Cameras also have a comforting feel to them just the fact that the communities feel safer with the cameras up is a good enough reason for the cameras to still be in use.
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ReplyDeleteThis project seems a bit impractical for the amount of money that was spent on it. Traffic cameras at intersections are good to aid in crime scene investigation, however cameras that monitor theft are unnecessary for the price tag, in my opinion.
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