Dubai nods on CCTV use

Will CCTV lead a new revolution on public safety?

Many investigators consider confidential surveillance as an essential skill to know, irregardless of whether we are talking about fraud investigations, corporate investigations, or private investigations. For law enforcement groups around the globe, the use of closed circuit television, more known to the general public as CCTV, is very necessary especially in areas susceptible to high crime rates. In London for instance, CCTV cameras should be able to monitor you basically anywhere, especially if you are in the center of the town where it is estimated that there are over half a million cameras watching you every time.

Now the main issue here is if it violates our privacy as citizens, since most people are very touchy once privacy is mentioned. The mere thought that everything you do may well have been feasted upon by some unknown person really is something that may elicit alarm. We all treasure our privacy after all.

Because of this, the question whether the advantages of CCTV usage outweigh its possible infringement of privacy is freely debated on both sides. The arguments of either side offer pretty logical points, yet sadly, their effects have been constrained because safety has become a primary consideration in a society in which the largest hazard to our way of living is terrorism.

A concrete example of how CCTV can be indispensable in crime solving operations can be traced back to Dubai in United Arab Emirates.

When Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a military commander and one of the founders of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was killed inside a hotel, head of authorities in Dubai declared that they will take a leap in terms of monitoring the safety of people in the area. The murder was captured in CCTV film and it had been shown by news stations and sites globally.

It is recognized that that the current system of 25,000 video security cameras have played a major part in the local police's examination. With it they made it possible to recognize the offenders and their movements, which resulted in being able to draft a fairly accurate overview of what happened.

Regrettably CCTV cameras cannot really halt identity theft, an important portion of the assassins operation. The people who completed the assassin of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh were experienced Mossad agents and in all probability they will never be observed.

The events that befell in Dubai in January were unusual. Usually functions such as this, we are not meant to delve deeper into, but it was a chance for Mossad which they chose to make. If however we place that aside and focus on more ordinary everyday transgression, the main point is that the accountable are punished and should CCTV helps with prosecutions then it is worthy but should be evaluated repeatedly.

Seeing how widely used CCTV is nowadays, we could not help but agree that it had indeed made our lives for the better.


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The author is closely connected to a London-based detective agency providing private detective services concentrating in commercial, private, and corporate investigations and surveillance for private institutions such as banks, firms, companies, or even private individuals.