I’m of the opinion that some of what could be called graffiti actually enhances the environment. But this is good quality art in a place where it is wanted. Street art, perhaps. This is not random, unwanted, incomprehensible rubbish.
On the first Monday of the school holidays, I arrived at school at 8am to kick off the holiday programme I was running. The first thing I noticed as I walked into the grounds was 2 metre high graffiti on the end of the main classroom block. As I walked around the school, I saw more and more graffiti. Our school had been done over.
In the next few weeks a lot of money, time, energy and paint were spent in covering over the colours that defaced our buildings. The cost, for a school that is already struggling for money, is tremendous, and it’s tragic that it had to be spent to put right the scribblings of a bunch of narcissistic teenagers.
The popular thinking is that Britain is a ‘surveillance society’, and this is held up as a bad thing. Here in New Zealand we are far more resistant to centralised control and CCTV systems and surveillance are not so common.
But I’m thinking that CCTV might have been a good thing for our school. The police had better things to do than chase up a supposedly victimless crime, but a visual of the crims may have helped them, especially if the youngsters were already known.
The school engages a security company but they only monitor alarms, not disturbances in the grounds. With CCTV, security companies can provide faster and more accurate responses. Sure, it costs more, but if it can stop a graffiti attack like the one we suffered, it will pay for itself.
Almost but not quite entirely on another subject, I’m wondering what the purpose of call recording is. Companies you call are obliged to let you know that your call is being recorded, and for what purpose. Which is fair enough. But they all seem to say it’s for training. I’m sure there must be other reasons. Such as having a record of who said what in case of a dispute, maybe. Just seems odd there are never any other reasons given. It’s not something that bothers me particularly, as I can’t imagine recorded conversation being used for nefarious purposes.
Tags: call recording, CCTV, graffiti, security, surveillance