The debate over CCTV

Before I jump into this topic, I want to clarify that any opinion or view expressed in this article are not those of the Ottawa Police Service, but rather my views as a police officer who has spent the last 15 years of his career working directly with the community on issues of safety and security.

Some of facts mentioned in this article come from various sources of information that I came across while doing my research on the topic as I believe that it is important to try and expose all sides of an issue before even attempting to have an opinion.

So here we go. Does closed circuit television monitoring really make us safer in our communities?

CCTV is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. You will typically see them in banks, casinos, airports, military installations and some corner stores or large retail outlets.

The debate centres on the use of CCTV by government agencies to monitor public places. Immediately the debate becomes about whether the loss of privacy is worth the potential for creating an environment that is safer for humans. Both sides have many points to support their stance and before I share some of these points with you allow me to set the stage a bit.

George Orwell in his book 1984 demonized a totalitarian government that strove to control every aspect of people’s personal and professional lives through CCTV surveillance and total state control.

This book is often referred to by people who are afraid that allowing government to monitor people in public via CCTV is an invasion of our privacy and civil liberties and potentially opens the door for government misuse and abuse. Others point to the fact that the use of CCTV’s is very expensive and does not really deter or reduce crime nor help police apprehend offenders in most cases.

On the other hand, there have been success stories with the CCTV system and the evidence gathered by a CCTV system. For example, CCTV’s were able to help police arrest the terrorists responsible for the London underground bombings and more recently CCTV was largely responsible for the police being able to identify the Israeli assassins responsible for the attacks in Dubai.

I can also tell you that police here in Ottawa, often rely upon video surveillance to assist them in being able to identify offenders because the fact is that the humans do not always make the best witnesses. I will take video surveillance over a human witness almost any day, because video evidence is often the best evidence because it does not lie, nor does it embellish, forget or get confused under cross examination.

Today, police in Ottawa rely on CCTV’s located in banking institutions, corner stores, retails outlets and those owned by private citizen to gather information on the identity of offenders and criminal occurrences.

While Ottawa does have public CCTV’s to monitor traffic at certain major intersections and portions of highway 417, it is not designed to be used as a crime prevention or detection tool. In fact, in Ontario, the use of the information gathered from CCTV has to be in accordance to the municipal and provincial versions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act which regulates how images and information obtained by CCTV can be gathered and released.

So what do I think about the use of CCTV in public spaces to make our communities safer and more crime free?

While I can certainly see the merits of having CCTV’s in specific areas that are at risk of attracting serious criminal behavior or terrorist attacks, I do not endorse using them as a “catch all” solution to crime prevention, detection and prosecution, especially in public areas. I feel that if we follow the example of other countries, we are not empowering the average citizen to take responsibility in making their own environment safer by engaging themselves to make a difference in their community.

Cameras in our public spaces sends a message to people that their environment is not safe, since historically we see cameras in areas that present a risk of criminal activity and disorderly conduct. Cameras in our public spaces monitored by a government agency also sends a message to people that safety and security issues are being dealt with on a “top down” approach and not a “bottom up” approach where the residents of a community become active stakeholders of their safety and security, not only the government.

That said, it can be a very valuable tool when used appropriately and judiciously in an area that warrants its use.

What I would prefer to see is governments investing in building communities that make sense for humans to work, live and play safely in, by designing them in a way that encourages people to use the public spaces.

People feel safe when they are connected to their communities and the people found in them. Not because they are being told what is going on by the media, but because they know what is going on first hand because they walk the streets in their community every day.

If you look around Ottawa, communities such as the Glebe, New Edinburgh, Centretown, Westboro and Hintonburg are all examples of communities where the use of CCTV would be somewhat redundant because people who live there can either walk or bike to work, to stores, restaurants and shops and have the opportunity to feel safer by doing so. If anything, the use of CCTV may make many of those residents feel less safe and the perceived invasion of privacy would decrease their enjoyment of the community.

At the end of the day, this debate will continue and, to that end, I want to leave you with something I came across while at a community consultation on how to make a community safe.

It was a poster that had the following simple suggestions on how to build a community that is both safe and enjoyable to live in: Turn off your TV. Leave your house. Know your neighbours. Look up when you are walking. Greet people. Sit on your porch. Take your children to the local park. Support neighbourhood schools. Honour elders. Pick up litter. Talk to the mail carrier. Hire young people. Organize a block party. Ask for help when you need it. Share your skills. Seek to understand. Listen before you react.

 All these suggestions spoke volumes to me and what struck me the most was that nowhere on that list did it speak about putting up cameras in your backyard.

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