Positives of CCTV in the Workplace – by Maria Weiss, CDM 535

CCTV can feel like “big brother is watching you”from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Employers may install CCTV in the workplace to protect their property or catch employees in a forbidden act. CCTV may also be used to safety and ergonomic evaluations to implement improvements for the employees’ routine tasks.

In the movie, The Good Girl, a cctv is recording the stockroom activity. Therefore the store management knows that two of their employees were have sexual relations. This is relevant to the story when the store is robbed. The stockroom footage is reviewed to revile the theft. Management then asks the other half of the couple where the thief is. In this case the store has utilized the cctv to protect its assets and catch employees in criminal acts.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279113/ The Good Girl – example of store employees being caught on tape having sexual relations.

In the movie, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, cctv is monitoring the subway system in New York City. This subway train, with its passengers, is taken hostage in order to steal money. From the central control room, all the activites are being watched. CCTV has limited views, but in this case they have been installed for safety and maintenance of the train system.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1111422/ The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – example of cctv in public transportation on the basis of safety and maintenance.

The legalities of using cctv in the workplace needs to uphold privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms. The site also has to notify the employees that cctv is being used, however the locations (hidden or not) does not have to be disclosed. The positive reasons behind using cctv can benefit both the employer and employee. The employer will be able to terminate an employee who’s behaving against policies and laws. The employer will also be able to determine how damage or quality issues occurred and find root causes during investigation. The employee benefits from cctv when performing a job safety analysis or ergonomic study to improve the work flow. This reduces stress on the employee and identifies additional improvements, which would improve the work flow.

EMPLOYEE SURVEILLANCE - NEGATIVE

Employees are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy at work as their employers are monitoring them closely with electronic surveillance. Certain states have tried to prevent employee electronic monitoring but these efforts have not been successful so far.

Employers have some valid reasons for doing this but from their perspective they are also concerned in regards to what impact this will have on the employer-employee relationship. Despite the concern employers have for jeopardizing the relationship with their employees, more than 75% of companies said that monitoring helps them to combat personal use of Internet during business hours and making sure employees do not divulge company trade secrets or intellectual property.

This makes the employee feel that he is not trusted to be honest and responsible. The gaze is viewing them with suspicion and distrust and yet it’s an inevitable result of the new digital technologies in a postmodern society especially after 9/11. The ways that subjects regulate their own behavior, the panopticism, would involve employees using company time to only do their work assignments and employers being watchful of employees behavior without violating the respect each employee deserves. Employers should develop effective business equipment policies with the help of legal council to carry out their responsibilities without jeopardizing the workplace relationship. Employees would benefit from such a policy because they would know in advance how their employers monitor them.

The federal statute in this area is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). The ECPA bars the intentional interception of any wire, oral or electronic communication, or the unauthorized access of stored communication.
The ECPA has three exceptions that include allowing employers to monitor business related phone calls, to monitor communications when there has been employee consent, and to retrieve and access stored email. Employers sharing this information will help avoid the negative aspect of this process. It will be viewed as a win-win situation for both the employer and employee.

FINAL EXAM- Traffic Light cameras-NEGITIVE VIEW

I will be talking about Traffic Light Cameras and shine on the negative part of them.

I think that this is part of the post modernism because they are trying to advance technology and this is one more way to get money from the starving government.

It is not so much a problem in the smaller cities like Saginaw, MI. They have Traffic Light Cameras all over the United States and even the Country. You will see them driving through the bigger cities or booming states such as; Ohio, Georgia, Florida, California…etc. Driving down South 75 I see them a lot. I do not think that they are a good idea for a few reasons, 1) What if you are not driving the car, 2) They have no proof of what you did and 3) There is no way of explaining what you were doing.

The Traffic Light Camera is a system that takes pictures of people speeding or running through red lights. What they do is take a picture of your license plate and send a ticket to the person whose plate is registered in that vehicle. The camera does not warn you, does not give you footage or proof.

The negative side of this whole concept is that what if you receive a ticket in the mail for something you never did? A lot of people drive cars that are registered under another person’s name. For example what if your daughter borrowed your car and a few days later you received in the mail a ticket for something you never did? I personally do not think that is right.

Another reason why I think this is negative because they take pictures of your license plate but they have no proof if you really were speeding or if you ran that red light. It is just pictures of your plate. You could have sped through the yellow light and slowed down after you were through and the camera could have taken the back of your plate after. There is no way of showing what you truly did and no proof.

My last reason for having this be a negative thing is you cannot talk your way out of the ticket. What if your wife was in labor and you were speeding because you had to get to the hospital? What if you were rushing because of some emergency? What if your car was stolen? These situations have happened in the past to someone at some point in time.

I think the cameras on the Traffic lights are not good. I think that it can cause a lot more of a mess then to actually have a real cop there to talk to.
One last negative thing about traffic cameras is that it is taking jobs away from police officers cutting budgets and real peoples income. I think that they need to have more police out there to help protect us citizens. With the cut back on police and the addition to traffic cameras, it seems like more crime will be out there due to the numerous lay- offs.

This is my negative side of Traffic Light Cameras.

http://www.speedingticketcentral.com/red-light-camera.html

by: Alicia Gwizdala