Dear Editor,
Our crime situation continues to haunt us, and many people are investing heavily to protect their properties and lives, and capture, warn or identify criminals using alarms and security cameras, amongst others. Most people installing CCTV (security) cameras would install them in a position that makes it impossible to identify someone unless the person could be recognised by their physical structure, and in many cases, that’s impossible. People should not be fooled by what is shown in the CSI series; the technology is not available as yet to enhance bad footage sufficiently to get a decent image; the camera must be very close. It doesn’t matter if people could touch the cameras, because if they do they are being recorded. The standard recording for most DVRs is 24 frames per second (fps); that is like taking 24 photos in a second and when you play it back you get the video. Depending on the setting of the DVR, you could record at 30 fps, which gives far better quality, and when replaying, there are video editing programmes available that could be used to scrutinize the videos to get the best images.
Editor, there are many places where you could go to get different types of security systems to purchase, but the real shocker comes when you ask for the prices. Believe it or not, these people are increasing the cost of a security system by four times, and those installing it are charging a tremendous amount. In addition, when you look at the way they install the system, you start to wonder what the purpose of the cameras is, because you know that they wouldn’t get proper footage.
If this government is serious about fighting crime, it should put a mechanism in place so citizens can get security cameras at an affordable rate, because the prices are jacked up tremendously. If almost everyone could install a security system it would enhance the fight against crime greatly. Take the recent crime that was committed against the M&M snackette: the robbers had on face masks to prevent people from identifying them, but I don’t believe that they would walk from their home with their faces covered to commit a crime, and if they did that they would draw attention to themselves. I’m quite sure the police will be looking at houses nearby which have security cameras to see if they have footage of the criminals passing before or after they committed the crime. In order to help the fight against crime, let security systems be more easily obtainable, so that many people could get cameras and people could help one another.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates