Surveillance spy cameras monitor everything from office restrooms to upscale restaurants to private homes.

Surveillance spy cameras aren't restricted to outdoor use. They can be used indoors as well, disguised inside common devices such as boom boxes or radios. Surveillance spy cameras are everywhere these days and the reason is quite clear: there is simply no better way to monitor your home or business operations and ensure safety. With dramatically improved digital technology and diminished operating costs, surveillance spy cameras are not just in banks or department stores anymore.

Video surveillance cameras are more widely used and popular in Britain than in the United States. The origins of this popularity can be traced back to a single incident where a video camera (in Brtain commonly called CCTV for Closed Circuit Television) recorded 2 10 year old boys leading 2 year old Jamie Bulger away to kill him. Video surveillance will always be upon us. Quite likely, the establishment, with its use of video surveillance, will have the upper hand, for they have the advantage of fixed camera geometry calibrated within the environment, the ability to do motion detection (e.g. Video cameras peer at us from the sides of buildings, from ATM machines, from traffic lights, capturing our every move for observation by police officers and private security guards that often act with very little public or legislative oversight. While the effectiveness of these devices in reducing crime is dubious at best (see below), recent cases of misuse by public and private authorities serve to question the appropriateness of video monitoring in public space.

Surveillance spy cameras have been used in movies and TV. Following on the heels of the movies"The Truman Show" and "EdTV" and the new TV show "Survivor".  CBS recently started a primetime television series this summer that places ten strangers under 24-hour surveillance for three months for the chance to win half a million dollars; the show is called "Big Brother" .

Just remember that surveillance cameras didn't deter the terrorist attacks in London and they didn't stop the courthouse killing spree in Atlanta.