It was exactly a year ago when a thieving incident took place in SU campus. The only witness was a CCTV camera installed near where the bike was parked. Unfortunately, the security device had malfunctioned and therefore, failed to aid in catching the culprit. By some positive turn of events, the bike was eventually returned to the owner while the Public Assistance and Security Office (PASO) said it would improve its facilities to prevent this from happening again.
Just when all the security measures within the campus were expected to be working, another thieving episode recently took place. There were similar elements between the former and the latter thieving incidents: a bike, its owner and a CCTV camera that didn’t serve its purpose.
The first time the CCTV cameras didn’t operate was bad enough yet somewhat forgivable. They were an innovation in the university’s security system and therefore, could be afforded some room for improvement. But this time around, it seems there is something perpetually wrong about the devices. Were they not maintained properly? Are they permanently becoming liabilities instead of assets to students?
PASO has evidently committed a blunder in providing proper maintenance for the functioning of CCTV cameras in the same way many of the students remain careless in keeping their possessions safe. Without a clear explanation of their malfunction, the surveillance cameras may as well be deemed defunct for good. We can’t just rely on them to keep us and our belongings safe knowing that they could flunk anytime.
Our best line of defense is being more vigilant in watching over our things. To say that we need to keep watch of our belongings is old advice, yet it is also something that many of us don’t keep in mind very often. Now that the CCTV cameras are unreliable, it
would the perfect time to do so. This should be coupled with the PASO heightening security in terms of the entrance of individuals
and their activities especially at night within the campus.
The Weekly Sillimanian believes that PASO should pursue its plan of raising this concern to the SU Administration to revise existing policies. If there should be some sort of bicycle registration, it should give the best possible protection and assure owners of justifiable compensation .
Everyone’s growing tired of this same old problem. Let’s do something to resolve it for good.
