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Weakness
of Fixed Camera Surveillance Systems
1. Cameras do not
fight crimes; citizens and police officers fight crime. While fixed cameras can
be a crime deterrent and a tool to assist law enforcement personnel, cameras by
themselves are not able to stop crime or arrest criminal activity.
2. If fixed cameras
are to be effective as a crime deterrent, cameras must be visible, well marked,
monitored and installed in a manner so that criminals perceive coverage as
being sufficient for law enforcement to identify their activities, and that
such identification will result in negative consequences (arrest, prosecution
and incarceration) that outweigh the benefits of the crime they are
considering.
3. Crime
dispersion/relocation effect – even if fixed cameras do result in a crime
deterrence/reduction for the intended covered area, the dispersed criminal
activity may relocate to other nearby areas not covered by the fixed cameras.
4. To be effective
as a tool for law enforcement personnel to halt or respond to criminal activity
in real time, fixed camera locations have to be proactively monitored with
full-system real-time monitoring staff, and such staff must be able to
immediately communicate to on-the-ground patrols near the identified criminal
activity. Without such real time monitoring, criminal perception of the
effectiveness of the fixed cameras is likely to be reduced, and the camera’s
crime deterrence effect is corresponding reduced.
5. To be effective
as an investigative and prosecution tool, recorded video has to be of high
definition quality and recorded crimes must be proactively identified and saved
since municipalities generally delete recorded footage after a defined time
period to save hard drive space. Even if criminal activity is recorded
and archived, retrieval of the footage can be a time consuming process, and
footage may not clearly identify the crime and perpetrator without
corresponding eye witness testimony or other evidence.
Strengths
of TerraHawk
1. TerraHawk is a
manned mobile surveillance tower system, tactically deployed and actively
operated by law enforcement personnel whom can personally intervene to halt or
arrest identified criminal activity. Furthermore, with only one law
enforcement officer needed to operate the system, TerraHawk is a force
multiplier allowing other law enforcement personnel to patrol on their own or
coordinate with the surveiling officer. TerraHawk’s observation capsule
can be outfitted with any camera feature (HD, long-range, thermal and infrared)
that fixed cameras provide law enforcement, and does so with a 360 degree field
of view from an elevated vantage point.
2. With its manned
surveillance capsule deployed to an eye level height of 25’, TerraHawk is
highly visible and well identifiable as a law enforcement observation
tower. Given its 360 degree observation platform, tactical mobility and
rapid deployment, TerraHawk is likely to be viewed by the criminal element as a
credible deterrence to their activities within the TerraHawk’s tactical
area of operation.
3. If TerraHawk
surveillance in one location disperses criminal activity so that it relocates
in a nearby area, the mobility of the TerraHawk systems allows it to be rapidly
and effectively deployed to the new area of concern, thereby disrupting the
ability of criminal elements to entrench in a new location.
4. While
surveillance through a TerraHawk can be recorded, it is also viewed in
real-time by the law enforcement whom is manning the TerraHawk, and such
personnel can react in real time to halt or respond the identified criminal
activity.
5. Criminal activity
recorded on video footage captured by the TerraHawk can be more quickly
identified and corroborated by the eye witness testimony of the law enforcement
personnel manning the unit.
Published by TerraHawk, LLC February 2011.
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