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EDITORIAL: Bravo to North Side
May 02, 2010 (Cayman Net News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
For some time now, we have been advocating the acquisition and deployment of CCTV cameras at strategic locations in order to help reduce the incidence and increase the detection rate of crime in these Islands.
In fact, we recently suggested that. in order to jumpstart such a system of video surveillance, perhaps every business seeking a Trade and Business Licence should be required to submit proof that their place(s) of business have CCTV installed at their entrances, service and cash out counters -- before they are approved to operate a business of any kind. Details can be worked out for solely office operations that do not have to deal with cash.
Furthermore, this could also be extended to all new approved construction and could be added to a requirement for approval before occupancy (red card) certification. This could also be tied in with a mandated reduction in rates charged by insurance companies.
It is, therefore, gratifying to see that independent Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the district of North Side, Ezzard Miller, has spearheaded a successful effort, fully supported by the North Side District Council, to install CCTV cameras in the district.
In this respect at least, North Siders are definitely showing the rest of the country and its leaders the way forward.
It seems that, in principle, the current administration itself is also on board, by virtue of a recent statement by Premier McKeeva Bush that government "supports the purchase and implementation of additional security measures including CCTV."
As in many other respects, the ball appeared to have been dropped in this regard, with Mr Bush's remark coming almost four years after a corresponding statement by then Commissioner of Police Stuart Kernohan that "CCTV will be an important part of crime reduction strategies over the next three to five-year period."
What happened to the CCTV strategy during the intervening period, especially in the light of the large sums of money said to have been spent on law enforcement by the previous administration, seems to be something of a mystery.
Although Mr Kernohan pointed out in 2006 that, when the system was introduced in the UK, city centres in Scotland were some of the first areas to see an average 60 percent reduction in crime, CCTV cameras by themselves are by no means a universal panacea for the crime situation.
In fact, some reports in the UK have been somewhat ambivalent as to the overall efficacy of video surveillance.
What is clear from such reports, however, is that certain factors must also be present for such cameras to function as effectively as possible.
For example, a review of 44 research studies on CCTV schemes found that they do have a modest impact on crime overall but are at their most effective in cutting vehicle crime in car parks, especially when used alongside improved lighting and the introduction of security guards.
We hope, therefore, that those responsible for the implementation of the new video surveillance system in North Side will be guided by this, especially the simple premise that cameras need sufficient ambient light to function properly and, if it does not already exist, it will have to be provided in the shape of new or additional artificial lighting.
In many countries, CCTV is now the single most heavily-funded crime prevention measure operating outside the criminal justice system and a government sponsored and funded push ion this direction would certainly represent some small contribution to our flagging economy.
In particular, this could create another area of business to be developed by security companies, in the same manner that government has licensed some automobile garage operations to conduct roadworthiness vehicle inspections on behalf of the traffic department.
As a matter of fact, Fidelity Bank in partnership with two local security firms recently announced that they are offering finance to consumers and commercial properties that would like to equip their premises with video surveillance equipment.
Of course, a significant expansion of the "surveillance society", including the spread of CCTV, risks undermining fundamental freedoms, includes the right to privacy.
This may be important to a greater or lesser extent in other countries but, as we have commented before, any right to privacy in the Cayman Islands is conspicuous by its absence.
Granted, we have had a particular interest in this issue in the past because it was the right to privacy of the publisher and editor-in-chief of Cayman Net News, Desmond Seales, that was abused when his offices were entered and searched unlawfully, which abuse was sought to be excused on the grounds that such rights cannot be enforced under the law.
Perhaps, if we had had CCTV cameras installed, the incident in question would have at least made good television.
To see more of the Cayman Net News or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.caymannetnews.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Cayman Net News, Grand
Cayman, Cayman Islands Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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