CCTV and smart installation

Deputy Speaker, Chandima Weerakkody has announced that arrangements are being made to broadcast Parliamentary proceedings live, first through radio and eventually on television. Visibility is not exactly transparency but it’s certainly better than having to depend on news snippets in the media and the occasional lobby column. Representatives can cover themselves in glory or shame, but they will have to keep in mind that someone’s vote might be won or lost as they do their thing in Parliament.

Reading about Weerakkody’s claim (we hope it will not be like another election promise), got me thinking about closed circuit television. I remembered being taken on a tour of Los Angeles by my friend Steven Flusty about 15 years ago.

Home security systems

It was a thesis in motion about how insecure that city and indeed that country is. The fascination with surveillance was mindboggling. Steve had an eye for these things which, naturally, are not fixed in an in-your-face kind of manner. There were cameras all over the place, i.e. places missed even by the alert eye and places to which gaze does not stray.

Today, 15 years later, when CCTV is recognized as being an acronym of anything but an NGO, I found that the first CCTV system had been installed by Siemens AG in a place called Peenamunde, Germany in 1942, for observing the launch of V-2 rockets. A German engineer by the name of Walter Bruch had designed and installed the system.

We have come far over the past 59 years. Surveillance has got a lot more sophisticated. Today there is an incredible range of such devices from home security systems to satellite aided surveillance of enemy activity. Indeed it could be said that we are voyeur world. Recently, in Sri Lanka, CCTV devices were installed in key points in Colombo for purposes of combating all kinds of crime and wrongdoing, including traffic violations.

The first time such instruments were used for such purposes was in September 1968 in Olean, New York, when video cameras were installed along the main business street. It propelled Olean to the forefront of crime-fighting technology, we are told. Today, many private institutions, especially banks and stores use such mechanisms to discourage theft.

Public places

A friend of mine pointed out that intelligent installation can contribute to combating criminality. He mentioned two examples. One was the Peliyagoda Fish Market and the extortion racket. The mafia is not necessarily ignorant about such devices and can be trusted to find ways and means of countering such threats. Extortion doesn’t have to take place in public places, for example. Still, smart surveillance would take into account such realities, anticipate counter-measures and adjust accordingly.

‘Shouldn’t there be CCTV in airports, especially where Custom officials could encourage or be enticed by bribes?’ my friend asked. He is correct.

A lot of give-and-take happens at points of service. Foot dragging by officials anticipating an oiling of palms can be monitored by CCTV and appropriate action taken.

Track down criminals

I don’t know how much these devices cost. The Police and other relevant authorities are aware I believe of the sexual harassment and child molestation that regularly take place in trains and buses. When a would-be offender is aware that someone is watching, there is a greater possibility of the person desisting. The down side of placing cameras at every corner is of course the inva sion of privacy and the possibility that it can be used for other purposes, such as spying on and harassing political opponents.

Like all things, such devices can be used for purposes that are benign and beneficial to human kind and also for vile purposes of monitoring dissent with a view to suppression. That which is used to track down criminals can also be used in politically motivated and selective ways to serve the personal interests of the ‘minders’ and not the general public.

In the absence of adequate checks and balances on power and the powerful and given a culture of general apathy except perhaps at points of real and felt threat to self and sometimes nation, this is something we will all have to live with. Even as we fight for an evening out of obvious social anomalies, let me add.

On the other hand, since we have to live with CCTV, voyeurism and arbitrary invasion of privacy, even we might as well demand that the instruments be deployed in a more efficient and productive manner.

msenevira@gmail.com