Reality of security cameras?

[Brass Fetcher]

For those with a little better understanding of the criminal's mind than I have : what is the effect of security cameras at discouraging property and/or violent crime? Is it better to attempt to hide the cameras or do you put them out in plain sight?

Are the images admissable as evidence in court?

Thank you,

JE223

 

[jws]

For those with a little better understanding of the criminal's mind than I have : what is the effect of security cameras at discouraging property and/or violent crime? Is it better to attempt to hide the cameras or do you put them out in plain sight?

Where I work, we have around 200 different CCTV that we monitor routinely. This includes cameras in elevators and other places that the "general public" is supposed to stay out of/away from.

Does it discourage property crimes? Well, when they steal the cameras, so that they can vandalize, do their drugs, engage in interpersonal relations, perform excretory functions, etc., I'd have to say no. (They do these things anyway, cameras notwithstanding. But we have had at least two cameras stolen.)

The effectiveness at deterring violent crime is 50/50, IMHO. Those people that are intent on causing problems are going to do so anyway.

Some of our cameras are "hidden". But, someone with a really good eye that wanted to find them could.

IANAL, but I believe that the video is admissible, so long as a proper chain of custody can be established.

hth.

 

[Ferrari308]

You can use the images in court.

I know one person who got a deal on 4 b&w security camera's. He fed them to a vcr set on 8 hours of recording. The security camera's were able to film at night too. They got the security camera so they could see who was at the front door from the couch in the living room. One night, some kids decided to go around town keying cars. His wife thought she heard something out front, so he looked at his security feed and it was recorded, they keyed his car. He called the police, and they were able to use the video to arrest the kids who did it. If it wasn't for the video, the kids would have walked, but instead they had to pay to fix the damage.

Their camera's were not hidden, they were in plain view although they were not big enough to be noticed easily.

 

[orangeninja]

The Chicago PD have used highly visible cameras in rough parts of town to curb violence. Apparantly if the camera is there and the offender can see which way it faces it doesn't do squat. When the camera is covered it does little as drug dealers, etc. were paying kids to vandalize them, making the camera the target for crime.

Last I heard they were having limited sucess....but prosecuting crimes using camera caught evidence publicly is the key.