Home Video Surveillance Types of Video Surveillance

Types of Video Surveillance

Synonymous with CCTV and security cameras, video surveillance refers to one or more cameras used to monitor a facility or area in the interest of safety or observation. A mention of video surveillance typically conjures the image of an anti-theft security camera in a supermarket, convenience store, or other retail environments. However, video surveillance is useful in many applications, such as observation and public safety.

Countries like Canada and the UK use "eye in the sky" security cameras in parks, subway stations, bus stops and public buildings to monitor activity and, in case of disaster or malice, to identify causes and perpetrators. Police departments also have begun using unusually video surveillance techniques to bust large auto theft rings. A "bait" car is equipped with a radio frequency transmitter, surveillance cameras, and other location devices, and is planted in a location where auto theft is high. If and when the car is stolen, the recording devices in the car help lead officers to the arrest.

Surveillance cameras are also used widely in experiments or observations where human observers would be endangered. For example, the first use of a closed circuit television (CCTV) system was in the 1940s by the US military. The use of surveillance cameras allowed for much closer observation of experiments without the danger of harming any officials.

While surveillance video typically refers to an observation taken from a distance by a security camera, there are other types of surveillance which involve participants in observed activity, sometimes in protest to the practice of surveillance. The proliferation of personal electronic devices has also made these types of user-participatory surveillance more common.

• Counter-surveillance is attempts by people or subjects to avoid being recorded by a surveillance camera, or make surveillance difficult. Counter-surveillance is commonly practiced in robberies and other crimes, in order to disguise the identities of the criminals. Bank robbers often cover their faces with masks, or destroy surveillance cameras in order to prevent the recording of the crime.
• Inverse Surveillance is when an observer activity records footage with a personal camera. The inverse surveillance footage may or may not be in addition to surveillance video from another source. Usually considered an attempt to subvert the practice of surveillance, Inverse surveillance has grown increasingly popular with the spread of personal recording devices like camcorders, digital cameras, and video-enabled cell phones. Groups concerned with police brutality commonly use inverse surveillance as a method of observing police actions, in addition to the footage taken by security cameras in patrol vehicles. One of the most notorious examples of inverse surveillance video is that of the Rodney King beating in 1992. A bystander, George Holliday, recorded the incident between King and the Los Angeles Police Department. The violent footage prompted the creation of many "cop watch" groups which monitor police activity through inverse surveillance.
• Sousveillance is similar to inverse surveillance, but instead of an outsider recording activity, the recording is done by a participant. Sousveillance has become increasingly popular and easier to achieve with the wide variety of personal video recording devices available. Inexpensive and readily available devices like digital cameras and cell phones with video recording technology make sousveillance, whether it is the recording of a video diary, taking video footage of a party, or recording a spontaneous riot or public conflict, a prolific form of surveillance. Sousveillance has also become a subject of interest to large corporations like Microsoft and HP, who have recently begun to study the patterns and effects of sousveillance as a form of product development.

Equiveillance is a new form of surveillance, and is defined as the medium between inverse surveillance and sousveillance. With equiveillance, a neutral viewpoint is stressed and objective information

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