This is a tale of three cities. More accurately, it is a tale of three different places that have surveillance camera systems. Two are actual cities. One is your home, or rather, any home. All three illustrate the spread of surveillance camera systems, and how they can fight crime and other malfeasance.
Surveillance camera systems worth with a bank of CCTV cameras, short for closed circuit television. Taking either still photos or video feed, CCTV cameras can provide images of an area in real time. Banks, jewelry stores, government offices, and other security consumers have used them for decades. Recent advances in CCTV technology, such as thermographic cameras that see infrared, mean CCTV security is at a very large and very small scale.
Chicago is one city that has deployed surveillance camera systems with Operation Visual Shield. Former mayor Richard Daley has announced a plan to place a camera on every street corner by 2016. Currently, Chicago only has 2,000 cameras, with 250 being installed through a 5.1 million USD DHS grant. Because of its nascent nature, and slowness to realize fruition, Chicago still has the highest homicide rate of any city over one million people.
There is a far larger city with far less crime, thanks to its surveillance camera systems. London started building surveillance camera systems as part of anti terror efforts, but saw they were an effective deterrent at apprehending criminals. One can walk down busy Oxford Street and be photographed 1,000 times.
The newest frontier is your home. Your home is where wireless security cameras reign. They may have a wire to feed them power, but they transmit data to Cctv dvr system wirelessly. Anchored by a DVR, these are truly a wireless and cost effective surveillance camera systems.
Surveillance camera systems have outgrown traditional security systems. Now, the technology can be used at either a massive scale, or at a micro scale. These surveillance camera systems not only keep us safe, but let us know that we have nothing to fear as we walk about.