2008 Woodie Awards
Are those cameras even recording anything?
Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: Opinion
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The Issue: Campus Surveillance
Our Opinion: Surveillance cameras should be catching more criminals
The campus surveillance system is not leading to any arrests. The Chronicle is aware of several campus crimes taking place in the general vicinity of a camera, yet none of the video has led to an arrest.
Three instances of burglary took place in the parking lot of the University Village within a three-week period last spring. Stereos were stolen from a vehicle. Culprits still remain at large, as far as The Chronicle knows, in all three instances. The surveillance in the UV parking lot obviously was not enough to catch the thief on any of the three closely related crimes.
Why aren't the video cameras are not doing their job? The only purpose a video camera has is to tape the campus so criminals can be identified.
"University Police monitor interior/exterior campus facilities through a video-surveillance system to enhance our security effort," according to the PUC police statistics under crime-prevention and safety.
It's hard to believe a video camera would be out of range in every single occasion of theft or burglary. An obstruction on the screen or the culprit being consistently adorned with a mask could not always be the problem in watching the campus for safety. The Chronicle and PUC students must assume these speculations because answers are not made available. The most logical assumption is the video cameras are not doing their job and neither are the campus police.
Computer theft has been an obvious trend on campus in the past two years. Computers have been stolen on multiple occasions, some more than once from the same location. That's scary because the proper surveillance was not installed between the two occasions.
If a camera system had been installed in the Gyte and Gyte-Annex, the second robbery could have been prevented. Two computers were stolen six months earlier from a lab in the same building.
PUC offered a $10,000 reward for information to aid the capture of the culprits. Apparently no one has been discovered.
"We are intent on getting to the bottom of this matter," Purdue Calumet Police Chief Stephen Chaddock said in a press release.
The video surveillance system is obviously flawed and the proper follow-up precautions have not yet been taken to prevent further crime on campus.
Our Opinion: Surveillance cameras should be catching more criminals
The campus surveillance system is not leading to any arrests. The Chronicle is aware of several campus crimes taking place in the general vicinity of a camera, yet none of the video has led to an arrest.
Three instances of burglary took place in the parking lot of the University Village within a three-week period last spring. Stereos were stolen from a vehicle. Culprits still remain at large, as far as The Chronicle knows, in all three instances. The surveillance in the UV parking lot obviously was not enough to catch the thief on any of the three closely related crimes.
Why aren't the video cameras are not doing their job? The only purpose a video camera has is to tape the campus so criminals can be identified.
"University Police monitor interior/exterior campus facilities through a video-surveillance system to enhance our security effort," according to the PUC police statistics under crime-prevention and safety.
It's hard to believe a video camera would be out of range in every single occasion of theft or burglary. An obstruction on the screen or the culprit being consistently adorned with a mask could not always be the problem in watching the campus for safety. The Chronicle and PUC students must assume these speculations because answers are not made available. The most logical assumption is the video cameras are not doing their job and neither are the campus police.
Computer theft has been an obvious trend on campus in the past two years. Computers have been stolen on multiple occasions, some more than once from the same location. That's scary because the proper surveillance was not installed between the two occasions.
If a camera system had been installed in the Gyte and Gyte-Annex, the second robbery could have been prevented. Two computers were stolen six months earlier from a lab in the same building.
PUC offered a $10,000 reward for information to aid the capture of the culprits. Apparently no one has been discovered.
"We are intent on getting to the bottom of this matter," Purdue Calumet Police Chief Stephen Chaddock said in a press release.
The video surveillance system is obviously flawed and the proper follow-up precautions have not yet been taken to prevent further crime on campus.
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