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Having grown up in an area with an abundance of crime I prefer to live with the surveillance of public spaces. I'd wager that opinions on surveillance highly co

Having grown up in an area with an abundance of crime I prefer to live with the surveillance of public spaces. I'd wager that opinions on surveillance highly correlate with exposure to crime.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
There's not much evidence that video surveillance is effective. If it exists, the effect is small. Street crime is generally not committed by people accurately evaluating their options and making optimal choices with a long-term view.
- stretchcat 6y ago
  I've heard that cameras aimed at cash registers are quite effective at stopping employees from stealing. From my observations of where cameras in shops are pointed, that seems to be their primary purpose.
  - josefx 6y ago
    Isn't that redundant with modern cash registers? You know what amount of money was in it at the start of the day, you know what was sold, you know what was in it at the end of the day. Any difference between is and should would be quite visible without pointing a video camera at the employee the whole day.
    - colejohnson66 6y ago
      To be fair, registers aren’t used exclusively by one employee. At grocery stores, when someone goes on break, someone coming back might take their spot. That happens multiple times a day. And for restaurants, almost every employee uses the same few registers. The only way to know who is stealing is to either watch the drawer or to count the cash every time the employee walks away. Of course, most places go with the former as the latter is too time intensive (especially during a rush). The better solution (IMO) is to just count at the end of the day, and if there’s a discrepancy, mark it down. If it happens multiple times, you can compare who was at that register for each of those days and narrow it down.
      - davidgay 6y ago
        > The only way to know who is stealing is to either watch the drawer or to count the cash every time the employee walks away. At least in the grocery stores I frequent (Bay Area), the employee takes the drawer with them when they walk away (usually shift change) - clearly another option. I think they sign in/out too, so the drawer and the transactions are connected.
    - stretchcat 6y ago
      Well no. If a customer pays with cash, a cashier can take payment for something without actually ringing it up. The sale never enters the computer system. Even if you audited the shops inventory, you'll nearly always discover some products are missing, but that doesn't prove employees have been stealing; shrinkage has a variety of causes (shoplifting, damage, was never actually delivered, etc.) Regardless of theory, pay attention to where cameras in corner shops are pointed and I think you'll see what I've often seen: the cameras are primarily positioned to watch employees.
      - Someone 6y ago
        Or not take payment for a few items that a friend ‘buys’, take payment for 5 items while a friend ‘buys’ 6, etc.
  - andylynch 6y ago
    That is true, and is also a big reason why around here even pre-Covid smaller shops (cafes etc) have been going cash-free (their other being they hate bing robbed). The big exception is always the barber shops.
    - konschubert 6y ago
      That's funny. Where I live, small shops are cash-only because this way they can not pay taxes (and/or) launder money.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
lrossi 6y ago
I know people who got mugged right under a public surveillance camera. They don’t help as much as you think.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  And then you have people storming the Capitol not wearing masks, live streaming their crime, and shouting their name (even politicians did it[0]) We don’t need surveillance when the criminals are already idiots. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Evans_(politician) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Evans_(politician)
M2Ys4U 6y ago
>Having grown up in an area with an abundance of crime I prefer to live with the surveillance of public spaces. Why? There is no correlation between the amount of surveillance and levels of crime (or even in the trend of levels of crime).

Having grown up in an area with an abundance of crime I prefer to live with the surveillance of public spaces. I'd wager that opinions on surveillance highly correlate with exposure to crime.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago

There's not much evidence that video surveillance is effective. If it exists, the effect is small. Street crime is generally not committed by people accurately evaluating their options and making optimal choices with a long-term view.

stretchcat 6y ago
I've heard that cameras aimed at cash registers are quite effective at stopping employees from stealing. From my observations of where cameras in shops are pointed, that seems to be their primary purpose.
- josefx 6y ago
  Isn't that redundant with modern cash registers? You know what amount of money was in it at the start of the day, you know what was sold, you know what was in it at the end of the day. Any difference between is and should would be quite visible without pointing a video camera at the employee the whole day.
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    To be fair, registers aren’t used exclusively by one employee. At grocery stores, when someone goes on break, someone coming back might take their spot. That happens multiple times a day. And for restaurants, almost every employee uses the same few registers. The only way to know who is stealing is to either watch the drawer or to count the cash every time the employee walks away. Of course, most places go with the former as the latter is too time intensive (especially during a rush). The better solution (IMO) is to just count at the end of the day, and if there’s a discrepancy, mark it down. If it happens multiple times, you can compare who was at that register for each of those days and narrow it down.
    - davidgay 6y ago
      > The only way to know who is stealing is to either watch the drawer or to count the cash every time the employee walks away. At least in the grocery stores I frequent (Bay Area), the employee takes the drawer with them when they walk away (usually shift change) - clearly another option. I think they sign in/out too, so the drawer and the transactions are connected.
  - stretchcat 6y ago
    Well no. If a customer pays with cash, a cashier can take payment for something without actually ringing it up. The sale never enters the computer system. Even if you audited the shops inventory, you'll nearly always discover some products are missing, but that doesn't prove employees have been stealing; shrinkage has a variety of causes (shoplifting, damage, was never actually delivered, etc.) Regardless of theory, pay attention to where cameras in corner shops are pointed and I think you'll see what I've often seen: the cameras are primarily positioned to watch employees.
    - Someone 6y ago
      Or not take payment for a few items that a friend ‘buys’, take payment for 5 items while a friend ‘buys’ 6, etc.
- andylynch 6y ago
  That is true, and is also a big reason why around here even pre-Covid smaller shops (cafes etc) have been going cash-free (their other being they hate bing robbed). The big exception is always the barber shops.
  - konschubert 6y ago
    That's funny. Where I live, small shops are cash-only because this way they can not pay taxes (and/or) launder money.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

lrossi 6y ago

I know people who got mugged right under a public surveillance camera. They don’t help as much as you think.

colejohnson66 6y ago
And then you have people storming the Capitol not wearing masks, live streaming their crime, and shouting their name (even politicians did it[0]) We don’t need surveillance when the criminals are already idiots. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Evans_(politician) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Evans_(politician)

M2Ys4U 6y ago

>Having grown up in an area with an abundance of crime I prefer to live with the surveillance of public spaces. Why? There is no correlation between the amount of surveillance and levels of crime (or even in the trend of levels of crime).