valentina summaries, comments

7/29/2019 Valentina Summaries, COMMENTS

1/3

Gonzalez 1

Valentina Gonzalez

WRD 104

Professor Schneider

21 January 2013

Camera Surveillance of the Public Now and in the Near Future Summaries

One Sentence Summary

In a chapter of Christopher Slobogins Privacy at Risk, he declares that closed-circuit

televisions, CCTVs, can only decrease and prevent crimes when the most refined cameras are

located in the right spot and are monitored by skilled operatives; otherwise, according to his

analysis of multiple studies, CCTVs are not cost effective.

Paragraph Summary

In Christopher Slobogins chapter, Camera Surveillance of the Public Now and in the

Near Future, he claims that after September 11, closed-circuit televisions, CCTVs, became

hugely popular and were apparent in major cities as well as in small towns. Slobogin stresses that

CCTVs gained popularity for two reasons that included increased public safety and presumably,

convenience in terms of efficiency and cost. However, Slobogin claims that in cases that CCTVs

have helped decrease crime rates, other factors might have affected the outcome. Although

Slobogin acknowledges the fact that CCTVs assisted in finding those who were responsible for

the London bombing in July 2005, he still questions whether, overall, they are cost effective. He

inquiries whether the costs of the CCTVs are correlated with the increase of arrests or the

reduction in crimes. Slobogin concludes that in order for CCTVs to be effective, certain

measures have to be taken.


2/3

Gonzalez 2

One Page Summary

According to a chapter in Christopher Slobogins Privacy at Risk, the use of CCTVs

became more common in major cities and small towns after the tragedy of September 11 (82).

For example, Slobogin recognizes that cities bolstered by tens of millions of federal dollars, are

not so hesitant about using their cameras (82). For this reason, it is no surprise that CCTVs have

led to such enhancements that they are now able to distinguish people that have outstanding

criminal records using facial recognition systems (84). However, this does not impress Slobogin,

instead he argues that CCTVs have made more of a negative than positive impact in society.

Slobogin points out that cameras hypothetically have three uses which include helping

prevent or solve crime, identifying criminals and daunting crime (85-86). Nonetheless, in

Glasgow, CCTVS have had the opposite affect as citizens claimed feeling less safe because of

the overwhelming use of cameras that insinuated crime and danger (85). Also, CCTVs have

proven to be ineffective because generally, crime only decreased by four percent and in Sydney

one arrest was made within more than one hundred days (85). Furthermore, Slobogin suggests

that the crime lessening was due to other factors, such as more police officers on duty or the fact

that criminals can simply relocate (87).

Furthermore, in the United States, five cities ceased the use of CCTVs because they were

not cost effective (85). Slobogin proposes that CCTVs are not cost effective because cameras

and videotapes can easily be destroyed, recordings can be of poor quality, and images caught on

tape are always subject to interpretation (86). Also, Slobogin proposes that criminals might

not care about surveillance cameras being present (87). All in all, Slobogin makes the larger

claim that cameras will only be successful when refined cameras are used, when they are placed

in the right spot and when they are monitored by skilled operatives.


3/3

Gonzalez 3

Valentina: Good work on these drafts. Youve done a lot very well, but youve got find a way to

integrate the privacy issue, since its so important in the reading.

valentina summaries, comments

Documents