History of Video Surveillance

Security cameras and video surveillance systems have become a part of our every day lives. We see them when we go to school or work, at grocery stores, banks, entertainment venues and sometimes even at home. In fact, video surveillance has become so integrated into our everyday lives that most of us don’t even see the cameras anymore. There must have been a time without security cameras monitoring our every move; but, how did we get to this point? 

The first type of security monitoring entered the scene with the advent of closed-circuit television in the 1940s. It was primarily used to monitor space craft launches and flight paths. Using CCTV for purposes outside government use did not catch on until the late ‘60s in the United Kingdom, primarily because of terrorist occurrences. The idea stuck and then exploded when video cassettes were introduced to the market in the 1970s and 80s. 

At this point, businesses of all types were using surveillance cameras to monitor theft, insurance companies to catch fraud and private citizens to prove adulterous relationships and poor parenting. There were limitations to the technology, however. The video tapes would wear out or run out, lighting would be too low and video quality was still quite poor. As always, necessity gave birth to invention and the Charged Couple Device camera was introduced, running on computer microchips and allowing for low light and night time recording. This was followed quickly by digital multi-plexing, allowing for a more economic use of the video tape; and soon by digital video recording, eliminating the use of tapes all together. By the turn of the new millennium, especially after 9-11-01, video surveillance had reached all parts of our daily lives. 

The latest technology has reached our most used products: cell phones. Most everyone owns a phone with still picture or streaming video capabilities then can be sent phone to phone or computer instantaneously. While this is useful for sending videos of baby’s first steps to grandma, there is no way of knowing if the person on the street corner is monitoring your every move. Video surveillance will always be a growing and improving technology. Whether it is making our every day lives safer and more secure, verifying a suspicion or for some unknown purpose, it seems it’s here to stay.