EDITORIAL - CCTVs mean nothing if crimes stay unsolved

At the rate the television networks are incorporating in their newscasts video footages of crimes being committed as caught by CCTV cameras, it should be presumed that the criminals are themselves aware they are being recorded.

Yet, judging by what can be seen from these footages, the criminals appear unafraid and unconcerned that they are being recorded. In fact, the criminals move as if they actually relish being caught on camera.

There is nothing furtive and hurried in their actions. On the contrary, they seem relaxed and nonchalant, as if sticking a gun at cashiers’ faces and smashing display cabinets is just one more monotonous job that needed to be done.

The chilling feeling one gets from seeing these footages is the realization that these criminals seem dead to themselves. They are numb and fatalistic. It seems they have long come to grips with what they are doing, that if they get caught it is just touch luck, no big deal.

The feeling is chilling because people who are walking dead are dangerous people. They are incapable of emotion. They are unable to dispense with pity, kindness, and remorse. They are godless.

It would have been reassuring if many, if not most, of these crimes caught on CCTV cameras eventually get solved, the criminals who starred in them brought to justice. But there is hardly any indication in these tv news reports that that is what is happening.

What is happening instead is that the tv networks report the crimes caught on tv but do not go further with details that clarify whether the crimes shown have been solved, or at least being pursued with the end of eventually solving it.

This loophole in the reporting only serves to further embolden criminals to also get in the act, to have their few moments of “fame” on national tv. Staying silent on the resolution of crime cases brings out the copycat sense even among would-be criminals.

The unfortunate thing is that the only people who are happy with what is happening are the dealers of CCTV cameras. That is because people have been fed the wrong notion about CCTV cameras. Recording the commission of a crime means nothing if no effort is made to solve it.