EDITORIAL - Making “municipios” look impressive

Reacting to the nearly simultaneous robberies that hit the municipal halls of four towns -- Compostela, Carmen, Sogod and Pinamungajan -- the Cebu provincial board approved a resolution asking all towns in the province to acquire and install CCTV cameras in their respective "municipios" as well as other places as may be appropriate for their security concerns.

Well, what is there to say? We cannot go against the move because, admittedly, CCTV cameras do form part of the security measures that any security conscious entity may want to put in place. Just a word of caution, though. Security cameras are not the be-all of being secure. In fact, they are only as good as the measures that are adopted as a result of what the cameras may capture.

Any investment on security cameras will be a total waste of public funds if criminal investigation and crime solution cannot produce the intended results from this particular security measure that all Cebu towns are being urged to make. And from the looks of it, that is exactly where this whole thing appears to be headed, judging by the logic that went into the crafting of the resolution in the first place.

The resolution was introduced on the notion that installing CCTV cameras can deter crime. Maybe they can. But in all likelihood they cannot. And proof that CCTV cameras do not exactly deter crime is there for everyone to see -- almost all morning television news programs have segments that deal invariably with crimes that get caught on security cameras.

If almost all morning television news programs, both local and national, have regular segments dealing with crimes that were caught on camera, the only logical conclusion that can be inferred from it is that crimes are not being deterred by the security cameras. On the contrary, criminals may even be relishing the opportunity to get caught committing crimes on camera. Ironic as it may seem, it looks like an element of showbiz has crept into criminal activities.

In all likelihood, though, the rising incidences of crime despite the proliferation of security cameras could be an indication that criminals have fully understood the system and are using it to their advantage. They know that the system is slow, if it is not greatly impaired. They know that criminal investigations are slow and crime solutions even slower.

If you do not believe this, try watching the morning television news programs and wait for the segment about crimes getting caught on tv. Then you can take notes of the crimes and file them away for future reference. You will be surprised that almost none of the crimes you may have noted down will pop up again in some future follow up news story about arrests made or charges filed. One thing about CCTV cameras, though. They make "municipios" look impressive.