Well they are finally installed ~ the CCTVs. Dreaded if solely for monitoring traffic violations, welcomed if to surveil crime.
Looking at the direction the cameras are facing, the benefit of these solar powered CCTVs is not for Ara Damansara residents for the some authorities to gain revenue from summonses.
When I first heard that CCTVs were going to be installed, I thought to myself "Wow, our neighbourhood must surely be one of the most progressive non-gated communities in the country". So after the CCTVs were installed someone stopped to ask me the purpose of the surveillance. Naive me said to the asker, surely it must be for crime watch. Who on earth would want to waste that amount of public funds to catch traffic offenders?
Regretfully, the "who on earth" guess is apparently true if you observe the orientation of the cameras. When the poles first went up, I was glad to see that there were CCTV poles at each of our padangs. The football field by Mutiara, the playfield in the center of Ara Impian etc each have a CCTV pole. But on careful observation on the location of the pole and orientation of the camera, I am utterly disappointed.
It would make better community sense for the CCTVs to aid crime watch instead of traffic watch. Where is the need to watch the traffic anyway?
While the benefit of placing cameras at each junction could also a good idea to capture felons making their escape, the cameras at the padangs should really point inwards to the main area of activity. It would deter undesirable behaviour and should there be a football fight, viewing footage of the incident would shed light on it.
I guess revenue from traffic summonses will help pay for these cameras. Any other benefit from these cameras is only secondary.
Spot on mate! You are definitely and absolutely right about one thing! You are naive. If the CCTVs were meant for traffic watch, then they would have picked an area with higher traffic count so that they could optimise on their summon counts as well.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if you really ask the right people about the features of the CCTVs, then you might be a bit more appreciative of the initiative.
Hi anonymous
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. Well it's been quite a while since the cameras went up and now operationally linked to the Ara police station. It was confirmed during the Safe City launch that these cameras are for crime watch... isn't that a relief? So my naive guess was correct in the first place.