Writing Task 2, Essay No. 3 (Topic: Surveillance)

In many cities the use of video cameras in public places is being increased in order to reduce crime, but some people believe that these measures restrict our individual freedom.

Do the benefits of increased security outweigh the drawbacks?

Safety in an elusive privilege nowadays because of the rise of criminal activities. For this reason, many metropolitan have employed the use of surveillance videos for the main purpose of reducing the crime rate. However, many believe that in installing CCTVs, the people's individual privacy are being encroached. I am led to argue that the setback of this so-called security system is far greater than its advantages.On the one hand, having video surveillance makes a person at ease because it is in fact true that criminals will think twice before committing unlawful acts. Because of this, people will not fear roaming around their cities. Likewise, having CCTVs does deter the occurrence of petty crimes such as loitering, the reason is that small-time and less experienced criminals are easily caught by law enforces with the aid of their video evidence. These benefits do possess reasonable cases for adapting the use of video recordings.On the other hand, despite the sound advantage of recording the daily activities of public places, it is far more reasonable to detest them. For one, they do impose humiliation on the recorded person's part. In specific, since the video recording captures all the daily activities of public places such as walking, driving, talking, embarrassing acts such as making faces, and some nose-picking here and there are also being captured. These actions do not pose any significant threat at all, but instead they humiliate the subjects, yet they are kept and archived. On top of that, these clippings might even reach video streaming sites where other people could make fun of the innocent activities which is definitely going overboard one persons' personal space. Furthermore, heinous crimes are still committed despite the presence of video recorders in alleys and streets. The fact is that bigger criminals are not terrified by surveillance cameras as shown by massive bombings and terrorist attacks still occurring in huge cities where presence of high-end video recorders are evident. Therefore, the expressed purpose of installing cameras to relinquish dreaded and unlawful acts with disregard to the effect of invasion of privacy does not merit more benefits.In summary, the use of recording devices to survey people;s daily activities especially in public places is not beneficial when faced with the dilemma of personal freedom, The rationale being that they record activities that are not threatening yet embarrassing to the video subjects. Another reason is that larger criminals are not threatened by video recordings devices and more serious crimes are not prevented by video recording all together.