On March 21st, an anonymous person S discovered that personal belongings of about 50,000 won were stolen from a school locker. S checked other unlocked lockers as well as her locker. However, other unlocked lockers had not been emptied, so S realized she was the target of a crime. Subsequently, S went to the university headquarters, which has a CCTV management office with police officers to identify criminals. However, S couldn¡¯t find any clues because the CCTV cameras which filmed the student¡¯s lockers didn¡¯t exist.
The CCTV cameras in the university were installed for the safety of campus facilities, fire prevention and crime prevention in 2008. However, the purpose of CCTV installation isn¡¯t acceptable from the students¡¯ view.
According to the results of a survey about the direction of CCTV cameras, most CCTV cameras are not installed pointing toward the student¡¯s lockers. Furthermore, Jung Tae-heon, the administrator of the college of business, answered about the inquiry of CCTV installation at student¡¯s lockers, ¡°We were inclined to install CCTV cameras in lecture rooms and department offices. However, we didn¡¯t install CCTV cameras for students¡¯ lockers because a loss of study facilities is more worrisome than the loss of each student¡¯s stuff.¡±
Another method to find criminals is to check through other surrounding CCTV cameras. However, this method is inefficient because it takes a lot of time. Moreover, there are a lot of blind spots on CCTV cameras, so the possibility of spotting a criminal is rare. If criminals move through blind spots after committing a crime, they can run away from the scene without the camera¡¯s detection. Therefore, the blind spots of CCTV could be used for criminal behavior. Another big problem is that a portion of installed CCTV cameras are fakes. Fake CCTV cameras can¡¯t film like the real ones. Also, the fake CCTV cameras¡¯ appearance looks the same as the real CCTV cameras. Consequently, students can¡¯t rely on CCTV because it could be a fake CCTV camera.
The CCTV cameras¡¯ inappropriate positions are rooted in an administrative problem. Kim Yeong-kyun, from the general affairs section, replied, ¡°When each college requests CCTV after gathering opinions from the students, CCTV cameras can be installed after the final approval from the administration. Moreover, CCTV cameras can also be installed in the recommended locations by security.¡± On the other hand, it seems that colleges of CBNU do not know the CCTV installation guideline that colleges have the right to choose which way the cameras point. They said, ¡°The installation standards of CCTV cameras are not chosen by colleges. The colleges just follow the university guideline.¡±
Meanwhile, there are solutions to the CCTV problems. When students want to install CCTV cameras where they want, they send their opinions to the college. Then, each college sends students¡¯ opinions to CBNU. Through this process, CBNU installs CCTV cameras where students want. However, students¡¯ efforts to keep their individual belongings should precede that. For example, when they use lockers for keeping their stuff, they should lock their locker to prevent theft.
By Oh Ah-ra
ar34@cbnu.ac.kr