Perhaps we in the industry should try to change the phrase to the “database society” which more accurately reflects the fears of overuse and miss-use of technology to bring about greater state control of our lives.
Then again, CCTV cameras make the obvious “photo opportunity” for the national press and broadcast editors, so don’t hold your breath.
In the headlines again
The biggest CCTV national news story has not reflected well on the industry and, from the public’s point of view, I can well understand why. Headlines like Report finds most CCTV footage unusable as evidence do not inspire confidence.
Let’s face it, if you read that kind of headline about the performance of any other industry, wouldn’t you be shocked?
But behind the critical headlines from this there is a lot of constructive thought going into the future of CCTV. The summary of recommendations contained in that weighty tome, The National CCTV Strategy, published by the Home Office (download it here), can only be good for the industry and public alike. And, as far as I can see, it can only bring more business for both manufacturers and installers.
Un-sound bite
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who can always be relied upon for a snappy anti-Government sound bite, on this occasion seems quite out of step with the public when he talks about CCTV “undermining civil liberties”. Let him go down to the crime ravaged council estate and explain to those law abiding families whose lives are made a constant misery by roaming gangs of thugs that they can’t possibly have CCTV because it would undermine their “civil liberties”. He’d very soon be new kid off the block.
Think outside the shop
The other big issue this week is the rocketing level of shoplifting and, more worrying, the increasing level of attacks on shop staff. Your retail clients – from corner shop to superstore – rightly demand CCTV for an effective deterrent and provider of evidence, but here installers should also be looking at some of the other innovative technology around. I’m sure these appalling figures will spark greater use of more recent technologies such as the one which sprays the culprits with a dye that links them to the scene, providing irrefutable evidence, or a directional smoke system which forces them to leave the same way as they came in (the IPS4 X-stream which was a finalist in the IFSEC Awards a couple of years ago from Martin Security Smoke). Concept Smoke Screens also seem to have an unusual line in sounders which give out a safe but unbearable noise as well as disorientating strobes. These technologies may or may or may not be appropriate for your clients but it may be profitable to think outside the conventional cameras/panic alarm system.
No justice on the spot
However, is it any surprise that shoplifting has rocketed since the government decision to impose fixed penalty notices instead of taking shoplifters to court? The average shoplifter now gets away with a haul of GB pound 156 yet the maximum penalty is a paltry GB pound 80. What sense is there in that? From the shoplifters point of view there’s every reason to take the chance of being caught if that’s the only punishment they can expect. The humiliation of going to court and possibly being jailed was a far greater deterrent and it’s time the government listened to the retailers and reversed this failed policy.
Confident or what?
A reader rang to lament about some of the manufacturing faults he sees in equipment out there … door contacts that don’t work, bell-boxes that give up when it gets too cold, quickly corroding parts … So when I opened a flyer from Paxton Access I thought, now there’s a company that puts its money where its mouth is.
Paxton have started a new ultimate returns policy. They say that if installers send back any damaged Paxton Access product within five years of purchase they will send them a new one (or reconditioned to new). The company say they are doing it because they have total confidence in their products. “Making life easier for the installer means that we will sell more.” Who’d disagree with that?
See you next time,
Alan Hyder
Editor, Security Installer