CCTV surveillance: Enhancing safety and efficiency – Part 2

For business

When running a business, the importance of a Video Surveillance System or CCTV cannot be understated. With modern and advanced security systems, a CCTV camera allows you to significantly reduce the cost of protecting your business premises and your assets.

The systems reliably provide quality and seamless monitoring. This gives you peace of mind as you go about your daily operations.

Whether your business is a retail outlet or a commercial property, you need to make careful and well- thought considerations when it comes to your security. There are many advantages of CCTV installation in your business premises, including:

Reducing vandalism

Reducing the risk of breaking INS

Enhanced safety within your business premises

Reduced employee or staff incidents


Traffic flow monitoring

Many cities and motorway networks have extensive traffic-monitoring systems, using closed-circuit television to detect congestion and notice accidents. Many of these cameras, however, are owned by private companies and transmit data to drivers’ GPS systems.

Highways England (a government-owned company) has a publicly owned CCTV network of over 3000 pan-tilt-zoom cameras covering the British motorway and trunk road network. These cameras are used to monitor traffic conditions.

In London, the London congestion charge is enforced by cameras positioned at the boundaries of and inside the congestion charge zone, which automatically read the number plates of vehicles that enter the site. A fine will be imposed if the driver does not pay the charge. Similar systems are being developed as a means of locating cars reported stolen.

In Mecca, CCTV cameras are used for monitoring the flow of crowds.

In the Philippines, barangay San Antonio used CCTV cameras and artificial intelligence software to detect the formation of crowds during an outbreak of a disease.

In schools, the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, CCTV is widely used due to its success in preventing bullying, and vandalism, monitoring visitors, and maintaining a record of evidence of a crime.

In private homes

CCTV cameras effectively deter potential intruders as their use increases the risk of identification through the camera footage. Many homeowners choose to install CCTV systems inside or outside their homes, sometimes both.

If someone scouts through an affluent suburb seeking the most accessible house to break into, having a prominent CCTV system, alarm, or another security measure, makes the house appear to be a more difficult target, so they will likely move on to the next place.

Modern CCTV systems can be monitored through mobile phone apps, allowing people to view live footage of their house from anywhere they have internet coverage. Some systems provide motion detection so that an alert can be sent to a phone when movement is detected.

In shopping malls and retail stores

Theft is a considerable concern for many department stores and shopping malls. CCTV helps to protect stores’ assets and ensures the safety of employees and customers. This instills a secure, safe, and inviting experience for visitors.

Crime-solving

CCTV can also be used to help solve crimes. In London alone, six crimes are solved each day through CCTV footage.

Recommendations

“The Ghana Report” website reported, that four armed robbers executed a well-planned and coordinated heist on Monday, September 20, 2021, at Achimota along the Accra- Amasaman Highway, without being captured by a nearby Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) footage.

Between October 22 and November 4, 2021, ten drivers were captured on camera by the Motor Traffic Monitoring and Surveillance Centre of the Ghana Police Service for wrongful parking, driving in the road median, while others used the shoulders of the streets.

Every citizen deserves to be protected and treated well. Unfortunately, that cannot be guaranteed if we don’t also take specific preventive measures to protect our lives, loved ones, and properties. We have the police, internally responsible for our security and safety, but can we fully rely on them?

CCTV camera mounting should not be the sole responsibility of the government. Citizens, Institutions, well-wishers, and non-governmental organizations can collectively buy, install, or mount these smart cameras at vantage points for gathering intelligence which in turn will assist law enforcement firms to investigate, arrest, and ultimately reduce crime, theft, and violence, on our street.

I encourage all institutions, organizations, non-governmental organizations, well-wishers, and households to be deliberate and proactive about security matters. Our lives matter.

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