Behind the Screens

Gavin J.D. Smith has written a very interesting essay on the subject of CCTV controllers which can be found here.

What separates Smith’s work on CCTV from others on the subject is that he has not chosen to side with either pro or anti surveillance camps instead choosing to approach his research from an ethnographic perspective which aims to impartially evaluate the system through a self involved case study. In this case he has chosen to focus on the security staff operating a CCTV control room of an American college.

The most important feature of the essay is that it rejects “technological determinism” which Smith describes as an “unquestioning belief in the power of technology, whether benign or malevolent.” To combat this smith focuses on the human element to determine both the limitations of the system and how it operates outside of the hypothetical realm that most discussions are based.

One area Smith was keen to investigate was who was being targeted and why. In his observations he concluded that operators, simply through the practice of their job, had to select certain members of society which they considered to be more likely to commit crimes so as to prevent them. This meant that the gaze of the cameras was largely determined by personal prejudice of the operator. Young males in particular where found to be subject of the cameras gaze while anyone who’s clothing made it harder to distinguish where seen to be deliberately avoiding the cameras and as a consequence where more intensely scrutinized. In addition to this Smith found that much of the time the operators where not surveying the campus but following subjects of personal interest be it female students, interesting cars or even playing hide and seek with the security guards. One operator admitted to training one camera on his car at all times so as to assure its safety. Smith points towards another study by Norris and Armstrong which focused on an alternative CCTV operating room to conclude that this is not a localized problem.

“The gaze of the cameras does not fall equally on all users of the street but on those who are stereotypically predefined as potentially deviant, or who through appearance and demeanour, are singled out by operators as unrespectable. In this way youth, particularly those already socially and economically marginal, may be subject to even greater levels of authoritative intervention and official stigmatization, and rather than contributing to social justice through the reduction of victimization, CCTV will merely become a tool of injustice through the amplification of differential and discriminatory policing” (Norris and Armstrong 1997).

Smith also interestingly explores the consequences of an ineffective CCTV system which is an unusual stance for criticism compared to more familiar Orwellian scenarios. One of the key issues is that of misplaced trust in the security afforded by CCTV could likely cause people to become unnecessary victims of crime as they allow there guard to be lowered and place them selves into much more risky situations. On top of this the presence of the symbolic authority figure risks absolving peoples feelings of personal or collective responsibility for each other, as individuals assure themselves that either security staff or police can respond to protect of apprehend individuals according to their position. Unfortunately CCTV is replacing man power much in the same way that Bentham’s panopticon did but this does not offer the public more protection it merely increases the likely hood of prosecution. Most interestingly when Smith asked one of the CCTV operators’ what he felt would improve the system they said more men on the ground.

“Definitely more men. I mean the cameras are useful an’ that, but they can’t go
inside buildings and actually step in and physically remove the criminals. They
can’t stop an assault happenin’ either can they? They can watch an’ record it, but
they can’t intervene like my men can.” (Davie 2004)

When ascertaining the cause of these problems Smith points towards the human element and seeks to understand the route of the operator’s problems rather than simply vilify them. Smith looks firstly at delegation of such a demanding role to essential unskilled minimum wage workers. He felt that the wage was the most important factor regarding the operators shared feelings of under appreciation and that this did not make the operators inclined to perform to their full potential. With regards to training the main interest was the operation of the colleges specific network of cameras and thus the operators of the cameras where expected to instinctively know who to target and why. This is a green light from the institution to exercise personal prejudice in the name of security. The most obvious and obstructive problem facing the operators was the problem of boredom. Smith himself admitted to struggling to concentrate on the screens of the control room after 45 minutes and felt it was unreasonable to expect anyone to be attentive over the duration of an 8 hour shift.

I find this essay particularly useful in contextualizing my work. My initial idea was to introduce a human element to the CCTV image that we have become almost too familiar with. By encouraging the viewer to consider the person behind the lens they will hopefully begin to ask similar questions that are so common place when viewing documentary photography. Most people are aware that the camera is not merely a mechanical device that records reality and this same attitude should be accepted when regarding a system of cameras.

for good measure enjoy this trailer of a film about a CCTV operator turned stalker