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It's is safe to say that the affordability of today's surveillance technology, most homes offices, and business establishments are equipped with surveillance systems - CCTV security cameras to be precise. No other surveillance arrangement can beat this system when it comes to reliability and affordability.
Most offices and business establishments are wired with surveillance cameras for different reasons. Some managers resort to CCTV security cameras for security purposes while others do so to monitor the workflow of their employees. Others still, install security cameras to prevent workplace harassment.
Workplace harassment is not synonymous to sexual harassment. Sexual harassment in the workplace has been around a long time - ever since women were allowed to join the workforce, but has only been brought to light a decade or so ago. Since then, work policies were revised to prevent this and to protect employees.
What is Workplace Harassment?
Harassment in the workplace has probably existed long before sexual harassment but was only recently been acknowledged and identified by experts. Unlike sexual harassment, which targets mostly women, workplace harassment does not exclude anyone from its victims list. And it does not matter whether you are the CEO, manager, employer or client.
This kind of harassment happens when a person is subjected to repeated, unsolicited and unwelcome behavior that is offensive, humiliating, intimidating, and or threatening by an employer, a co-worker or group of co-workers, worker, client or member of the public.
To confront this issue head on, workplace prevention policies were put in place and human resource departments trained to deal with workplace harassment. If you are a victim of workplace harassment, you should address your complaint to the human resource officer and wait out the investigation; but with recordings of the incidents by CCTV security cameras, this won't take too long.
Protecting Workers in the Workplace
The investigation involves evaluating background documentation, policies, evidence and procedures taken up to respond to your complaint. If your office is equipped with CCTV security cameras, you can be sure things will work out for you.
In most, if not all establishments, surveillance cameras run 24/7 and cover all areas, so you assured the harassment was recorded. The surveillance records can be used as hard evidence in your case. Without CCTV security cameras, you will have to rely on witnesses - what they heard, saw or what they think they heard or saw, which is unreliable because in the end, it can turn out against you.
If you are the head of your business or office, and if by some chance, your workplace is not yet wired with surveillance cameras, make sure you have CCTV security cameras installed the soonest possible time. It will do a great deal to boost the security of your office and peace of mind of your subordinates.
On the other hand, if you are working in an establishment where there is no surveillance system, raise the issue during meetings. Suggest that the company set up CCTV security cameras to prevent workplace stalking or to stop bullying in the workplace.
“I think so,” says Sarasota, Florida resident Tommy Shaughnessy. “CCTV is a powerful tool against crime. But Americans are too paranoid about Big Brother to ever be truly comfortable with the idea of CCTV.”
How has CCTV Worked Out in the UK?
On July 7, 2005, four al-Qaeda operatives carried out suicide bombings on the London tube and bus line that killed 52 people. The CCTV system in London captured footage of the four men. The CCTV footage gave police detailed forensic evidence of the crime. One picture shows a bombing suspect running through an Underground station after his explosives failed to detonate. Another captured a second suspect standing on the upper floor of a double-decker bus.
In a matter of hours, the CCTV images of the bombers were plastered over UK TV stations. The CCTV evidence helped lead to the identification of the four men, which led to arrests and the discovery of a bomb factory and terrorist cell in Leeds.
CCTV in the US
Though it is not as popular in the US as it is in the UK, CCTV has been proven to be an effective tool in crime fighting, detection, and prosecution here as well. On February 1, 2004, CCTV security cameras captured footage of 11-year-old Florida girl Carlie Brucia being kidnapped by a stranger in a carwash parking lot while she was on her way home from a friend's house. The stranger was identified at 37-year-old Joseph P. Smith. The tape shows him approaching Brucia, engaging her in a short conversation, then grabbing her by the arm and dragging her away. He later raped and murdered Carlie.
When the CCTV footage of the abduction was shown on the news, two of Smith's friends recognized him and called the police. Smith was already in custody at the time, arrested on a parole violation, but the identification led to his subsequent trial and conviction for murder, first-degree kidnapping, and sexual battery. He eventually told his brother where he had hidden her body. Smith was sentenced to the death penalty on March 15, 2006, what would have been Carlie's 14th birthday.
Without CCTV, Carlie's killer may have never been identified, and perhaps her body might never have been found. The Carlie Brucia murder is a strong case for more CCTV across the United States. Though we Americans may be apprehensive about CCTV's perceived intrusions, we have seen evidence both in the UK and here in our own country that CCTV can prove to be extremely beneficial. The debate may go on, but the evidence mounts in support of some form of CCTV security in the United States.