Who ate my sandwiches? Some uses for a security camera
View all articles 12th July 2013
For much of the general public, we know security cameras are watching us, but we give them little further thought. We are aware there are security cameras in city centres, on petrol forecourts and at the gates of locked sites and we largely ignore them, excepting perhaps, the desire to wave once you realise you're on the telly at the entrance to the supermarket. Or you are Mr Bean.
Given a little more thought, many people will start thinking about Big Brother and catching criminals. There are, however, many many more uses. Even with the current backlash as people's suspicion is aroused in the recent wake of the US PRISM surveillance program revelations, security cameras are all around us and they are here to stay. Indeed, in the UK we have more CCTV cameras per person than any other country in the world.
The first security camera was a CCTV camera developed during the Second World War in Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of rockets. They are still used for this purpose and other applications where a time-lapse record is useful. For example, recording house construction or site demolition, changing seasons in a garden, allotment growth, crop growth, sun / shade movement throughout a day etc.
Perhaps your need is related to a specific time frame. Security cameras are often used to record defined periods of time throughout the day, perhaps just at site lock-up time or to record animal behaviour. They can also be used in time and motion studies to help improve efficiency. Covert and general surveillance is another application. Monitoring remote road ends and parking areas, neighbourhood watch and addressing nuisance and anti-social issues such as fly-tipping and vandalism.
A key area a security camera can help, is with crime detection and prevention. Just the presence of a camera is often enough to deter crime. Awareness that a camera may be watching you, and that this evidence may be used to convict you is becoming increasingly more powerful as a deterrent. Theft is a problem encompassing diverse areas from fuel theft, equipment and material theft to horse, working dog and other animal theft; from car theft, home burglaries and frankly, anything that has a value to someone else! To help address this cameras are installed in builders' yards, for outbuilding monitoring, at construction sites, in stables, farms and rural areas, unattached domestic garages / sheds, parks and public gardens and domestic properties, to name a few.
Remember, though, a security camera is not the only security measure you should be taking to secure a site, but it is a cost effective answer to several problems and needs, and "a picture is worth a thousand words."
From theft detection to catching a criminal, from simple office surveillance to catching a sandwich thief; from animal monitoring to neighbourhood watch, a security camera has a multitude of uses. Let's not forget a final point: a security camera provides peace of mind. The origin of the word security is "free from care" or "affording grounds for confidence." That certainly makes me sleep more soundly.
Keep an eye on those sandwiches with one of Novetic's convenient, small and portable security cameras.
