Big Box is Watching You

With the prevalence of chain-stores in our economic world also comes a prevalence of closed circuit televisions (CCTV). This widely used monitoring device is employed by all the big box stores, chain restaurants, banks, many smaller stores, and anywhere that security might be a threat—government buildings, tourist destinations, mass transit, etc. To live normally in our society, CCTVs are inescapable; wherever we go, we are being videorecorded.

However, it is quite widely known that many CCTVs tape over themselves at set intervals. At my high school, this interval was set at every 20 minutes. A person with average detective skills might find it achievable to solve a crime within twenty minutes of discovering a misdeed, but to grant only twenty minutes to actually discover that a misdeed occurred before erasing evidence seems contrary to the proposed purpose. In essence, the users of CCTVs are saying, “Yes, we are watching you, but we’ll forget everything we see in 20 minutes.”

So, perhaps the purpose of a CCTV is not to collect data and evidence. Perhaps the owners of these cameras just want us to think that we are being videorecorded. By keeping us afraid that our actions will end up being videotaped and, thus, caught in whatever transgressions we may have been plotting to commit, they think we will remain complicit to the standards set by the corporate world of “integrity” and “honesty.” They think we will feel that we should not have anything to hide, and, if we do, we are the blisters on the heels of society.

But, wait! These anti-theft devices, in reality, serve to reinforce the idea of thievery as commonplace. By placing them in every nook and cranny of a store, they simultaneously shout, “People steal from us all the time; that is why we need to constantly watch you.” Through this, we can infer that it is not too bizarre if we steal, too. The mere presence of the camera gives the customer societal approval.

Despite our knowledge that we are capable of committing crimes without being caught, the cameras still act as a deterrent. We see the unforgiving veracity of CCTVs to be a large enough obstacle to walking out of the store with a pack of gum and a magazine in our hands to adequately prevent us from shoplifting. Fortunately for all those frequent “shoppers,” Walgreen’s has already taped over you.