You are benefiting from CCTV systems even if you don’t own one yourself. If you are saying “Huh?” to yourself, and asking yourself “How so?” That is a normal reaction and you are in the right place for some answers to this statement that might seem a little off the wall. Please, let me explain. Have you ever seen an episode of Cops, 48 Hours, or any of the other major TV crime shows? If you don’t know what I might be referring to you might want to check these shows out as soon as you can. If you are into crime, investigation, and all of that stuff you are going to appreciate this recommendation greatly!
So, in these shows there are real life criminal situations that take place, and most of the time where the crime was committed there wasn’t any security cameras. The investigators and law enforcement agents have to look elsewhere for security camera footage to work with to continue the investigation to hopefully solve the crime and get the criminal behind bars! Ok, so back to my original statement of benefiting from a CCTV system even if you do not own one yourself.
Consider this scenario. You are at the local pizzeria which, might I add, DOES NOT have a surveillance system in their building. This pizza joint is not in the best area and sits in the middle of a strip mall, with a Jamaican hair braiding shop to one side, and a pool hall to the other. You did not want to visit this area, but it was rated the “Best Pizza in Town”, and you if you are much like me, you will go to extremes for a good pizza pie. So, you are sitting inside the restaurant anxiously waiting for your mushroom pie to arrive, and as you take your last slurp of Coca-Cola, slurping every last drop annoying every customer in the joint, a guy comes in and holds the cashier at gun point demanding for money as well as pepperoni pizza. He demands the cashier to put the money in a pizza box. She does, and as he is leaving the young cashier asks the gunman if he wants his pepperoni pizza still. He grabs that pizza box, mistakenly leaving the box with the money! Thankfully no one was hurt, and the only thing the gunman got was a pepperoni pizza!
Now it is time to call the police and report a robbery. The police get to the pizza shop and are a little upset that the store owner does not have a surveillance system, but assures the store owner that they will find the suspect. The police have enough knowledge that they can use other businesses and homeowners’ cameras to their benefit. The police go next door to the pool hall, and find out that they have several cameras inside and outside of their building. The store owner gives access to their CCTV system, and soon find out that the criminal was in there playing pool before he decided to rob the pizza joint! The cashier from the pizza shop had a description of the guy so they were able to pin point the suspect. There were many camera angles and the criminal was eventually caught due to the neighboring store for having a CCTV system! Now, I am not recommending that you do not have CCTV system in your business, but if you currently don’t have one I would get friendly with your neighbors and maybe have them adjust their camera angles to view your business somewhat as well.
Imagine if one person on every block in your neighborhood owned a CCTV system. Your town is now protected in a, let’s say, “CCTV NETWORK”, meaning that all of the cameras in the town are working as one. And, as I stated before, you do not even have to own one of these systems to benefit from this network. The community is now able to work as one and help the police and society in general to protect, and serve. Again, I am not endorsing not owning a CCTV system, but what I am saying is that with or without, you can benefit even without knowledge! You don’t truly know how amazing this idea of having a “Networked” Town is until you have first-hand experience of being a victim of a crime, or accident etc. Ask around, and you will be assured that someone on your block has a camera that was recording when the event took place. Now, there is a downside to this. Not a big one, but you might not get the picture quality, the frames per second, and clear picture. BUT, you will have something which is way better then nothing!
Now, lets look at this idea on a bigger scale. Instead of a Town, lets look at a whole City. Now the whole entire city is linked together with home owners who have a CCTV system in their home. Owning a CCTV system is helping out the community as well as society at large. For example, if you own a CCTV system, and lets say you register your home into a national data base that says your home is under surveillance, the police and other forms of law enforcement could contact you to view your recordings. The benefit of this you ask? Solving crimes faster, getting criminals off the street, viewing accidents for insurance fraud, etc. There are so many benefits to having a “CCTV Network”. I personally think there should be some kind of incentive for the mass population to purchase CCTV systems as it can possibly link the whole world together for a greater cause.
How awesome would it be if this became a reality where there would be a national data base of CCTV systems hooked up for a greater cause? Where forms of law enforcement could access their system when needed, with their consent of course, for a greater good? Like I stated in the beginning, we benefit without even knowing, or even owning a system ourselves!