Why Install Surveillance Equipment?
At the level of practical reasoning, it is blatantly the case that the installation of CCTV or “Gatso” equipment and the like occurs for a purpose. This equipment is expensive to install and operate. In this respect, persons and organisations which install such equipment tend to do so out of a desire to promote a level of security and accountability within an environment. As items of material culture, CCTV systems and “Gatso” speed cameras serve to promote an element of accountability and security within an area. They are not however “all seeing”, and are always limited in their scope potential and application. Employing the vocabulary of Sociology, installing surveillance equipment in an environment is an attempt to exert a level of “social control” within a social space. According to the sociological discourse of “social control,” the cameras shown in figure 2 sited alongside a motorway are there to exert “control” over the behaviour of drivers. Drivers who see the cameras will likel
