User talk:Salochinick

Nicholas Jung Ms. Kritz AP Lang. 10 8 June 2009 Are security cameras a positive or negative to the average American Civilian?

The main reason behind the rise of the security cameras around the nation is due to September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001 (Goodheart). September 11 made the majority of the Americans in the U.S. want more protection and as a result they chose security over privacy,(technology good and Bad) and the best way to solve that problem was to install new security cameras and nation wide cameras have been popping up every where. Today in Manhatten within an eight block radius, over 300 security cameras can be seen (Smithsimon). With all of these security cameras people are starting to complain (of course after they feel safe again and want their privacy back) that cameras are a disruption to their privacy and that they are just another way for the government to take away their money. The average cost of a new security camera that are typically being installed today costs around $30,000 and it also costs around 1.35 million dollars in order to maintain all of these cameras in a average city of around 500 security cameras (police: crime cameras essential to public safety). After doing the math and adding up all of the faults and benefits of security cameras the over all answer is that security cameras are more beneficial then they are harmful to the average American. When entering a store any one can look at the ceiling and count at least three cameras. But what are cameras for, and who is being effected by them? Security cameras are typically for law breakers and being able to bring them down but there is actually another purpose to them and that is to protect the average American from police and to make sure that police officers stay inline(Rochelle). And then there is also the question on who the cameras are for here in America cameras that are mounted and properly placed are strictly for police and security reasons only. In Great Britain there are also television cameras which there contents can be used on T.V. and it isn’t just a few of them there are actually 1.5 million monitoring the public at all times but this is a case of the extreme where Great Britain is the country with the largest number of television cameras(smithsimon). There are plenty more cases of cameras gone extreme such as this one camera in San diego that brought in 6.8 million dollars worth of speeding tickets(Preston). Then there is the controversy over whether the cameras take away from our rights as American citizens in the sixth Amendment it states that a warrant is needed in administered in order to search a persons private belongings (Bill of Rights)but cameras are able to bypass that by looking through car windows and over seeing peoples private belongings and over hearing their conversations(Goodheart). Another aspect is that courts today refuse to acknowledge that people have no privacy the moment they step into a public area so then the security cameras aren’t actually breaking the sixth amendment (Smithsimon). So are security cameras produce a positive or a negative for the average American. Once there was a situation where in a parking lot a lady was being accused of punching her child in the car this was recorded on a security camera (Technology is good and bad). It was later found that she was just helping her child buckle up but the reason behind the first idea was because of a security camera. With the cameras being in only a fixed position and not able to move they sometimes end up distorting the truth (Tigab). There have been some recent finding that show that some of the crime that has been going on before the cameras haven’t stopped but have moved to another area that is out of site and off camera (Cameras would help cut crime in Outtawa). The cameras of toady are constantly advancing and gaining new details that are supposedly suppose to help in fighting crime one of them is facial recognition the fault in this is that certain ethnicities are depicted more than others and some faces may be confused with others so some one may end up being falsely accused of a crime they may have had nothing to do with (Smithsimon). With weather and distance playing a factor certain images may be distorted and hard to make out so again someone may end up being falsely accused (Sithsimon). With traffic lights it has been noted be many that the yellow light time of the traffic light has been cut down and it is believed that this has been done in order to catch more people running a red light on camera (Preston). So are cameras doing the job that they are designed to do? Since the cameras aren’t leaving people have decided to take matters into their own hands and find a way to snake around the cameras. A common answer to how to sneak around cameras is to use camera blockers which blurs the image that the camera picks up, this is commonly used on car license plates (Traffic light Cameras). Even with all of these faults of the camera they still have more positives that end up out weighing these negatives. The security camera is meant to help catch law breakers and there is one case that stands above all that is a prime example of this. Within several minuets of a bank getting robbed the thief was caught completely because with cameras he was tracked and arrested(Public safety cameras making a difference). The cameras in police stations aren’t just to make sure that prisoners stay inline but to also insure that the police officers stay inline also. There are many accounts of abusive police officers that have been caught on tape such as an account a officer who was beating a woman who was speeding (Rochelle). The rise of the security cameras are originally from Sept. 11 mainly because it was one of the most successful tools that was used to catch the men who took part in the terrorist attack(Technology good and bad). Almost all crime scene investigations use cameras in order to check and see where people were and how thing played out and the camera are more reliable because unlike humans they cant lie(Public safety cameras making a difference).the advancements of cameras haven’t all been negatives there are some that have proved to be most useful and help in more ways then we could have imagined such as a recent advancement which is the shot spotter what it does is help triangulate where a gun has been fired and it helps police arrive at a scene faster and with early detections of a problem that is going on rather then just waiting for someone to call in after the crime has been committed (Public safety cameras making a difference). With cameras always in a spot that is least noticed the camera is often called the perfect search just because when there is a police officer around people make certain changes but with a camera and the person not noticing they end up showing their true character and this can be even more use full in fighting crime such as drug dealing (Smithsimon). We live in a hard time today. With the economy going down and the supposed global warming and end of the Inca calendar system (meaning the end of the world in the year 2012) police and officials believe that crime rates are going to increase and the best way to limit this is to add more security cameras(Pscmd). So with all of these arising problems its believed that we are going to need to boost our security in order to keep the average American safe from the estimated rise in crime that is coming. Security cameras have their faults but so doesn’t everything, nothing is perfect and all that man can do is just continue to perfect things until they are satisfactory. So yes cameras do have a ton of faults but those problems are slowly being worked out. For right now the cameras are pulling enough weight as it is and with time they will be able to do more and problems such as blurred pictures and bad face recognition will disappear and will no longer be a problem. With all of the rising problems of the world crime will increase so with that security needs to increase and for that cameras are the way to go. So yes cameras do produce more positives then negatives for the average American and with time there will be even more positives that the camera will be able to produce.