What was used before the discovery of Security Surveillance systems?

Security Surveillance systems are a twentieth century discovery. They are still new and are still developing. There was a time that there were no Security Surveillance systems anywhere. People still lived happily, except that during those times, there was high level of crime, vandalism, and abuse of resources and people. For instance, a person would make personal calls using the office telephone without a care, as they knew there was no person watching. Many company resources were stolen and or vandalized, but since there was no evidence on who did it, the company would gain uncontrollable losses. More so if workers or students wanted to go for go downs and strikes, then they would vandalize machinery that is very essential to the company or institution and this was encouraged by the fact that there was no evidence on who did it. To date, no one is willing to do some of these actions knowing that they are being watched.

In other instances, a factory accident could have happened and genuinely the factory was to blame for the accident, but the lack of evidence on the accident occurring would render the employee helpless, jobless and hurt. Also, in the cases of negligence in hospitals and other institutions would go scot free, as there would be no evidence against such criminal acts. Super markets and stores were heavily affected by shop lifters and armed robbers, as there was nothing to show or identify who the criminals were. More so these business places had to employ very many personnel as watch men to guard on their goods.

Then in a while, people discovered mirrors, which were put in every corner and reflected what people were doing, especially in malls and other shopping complexes. This was a huge invention and helped card shop lifters for a long while. It also helped in learning institutions especially during examination periods as cheating in the exam room was curbed. The problem with this method was that there was no information stored to be used as evidence on any criminal activities. All it did was create a sense of shame to those who were doing wrong in the fear that every person is watching them.

In places where mirrors were not applicable like in hospitals, many protocols and guards were employed. Some guards were assigned binoculars and telescopes to help in security surveillance. This was not as effective as the guard may not be looking for a whole 24 hours. The closest people came was putting video recorders at different points. This also had its short comings as one had to keep changing the tape and also predict when it was almost complete. This incurred many people a lot of money and so not many could afford it. This method is still in use especially in the third world countries.

When the Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) was introduced into the market, it was extremely expensive and very few people could afford it. This came with motion and sound detectors too. However, after a few years, and due to internet and a lot of talent in the world, the prices came down and now the device is affordable to almost everybody. CCTV has helped a lot in the record keeping of every event happening everywhere.