Surely, you have been stirred by the raging debates over public surveillance. Perhaps as you're reading this article, you feel a twinge of conscience for installing your outdoor surveillance camera without warning the whole neighborhood but ironically, you feel outraged over those covert cameras the boss has set up in the workplace. Strange politics indeed.

To Install or not to Install Surveillance Cameras

After the infamous 9/11 event, governments and people rallied or debated for and against increased public surveillance cameras and the eye in the sky. But before this, people raised a hue and cry over the intrusion of their privacy in the workplace but the events that fateful September day thrust the issue of covert surveillance to the core of mass consciousness. Now here you are with your newly installed outdoor surveillance camera.

It's a different story when it's about your outdoor surveillance camera. You are protecting your property against thieves and vandals so people who enter the premises of your property should be subjected to surveillance, especially if no one is at home. Good try. You're on the right track because thousands of other home owners share this view. Go ahead and install your outdoor security camera.

It's legal to install that outdoor surveillance camera, but it is not always legal to rig spy cameras in guestrooms and in the bath. If you are caught at it, expect a long-drawn court battle and spending time behind bars, or a stiff fine. If you hate the thought of office spy camera watching your every move so why spy on your house guests and the nanny?

If it is necessary to have a nanny cam indoors, you have to inform the new nanny. Some States require this and failure to do so means BIG trouble.

The Bad Guys and the Good Guys

That outdoor surveillance camera does not discriminate against the good guys and the bad guys. It will keep on recording people passing by, going up your doorstep, and people leaving your home. Friends do not have to disguise their faces but expect the bad guys to don big sunglasses and hats.

When you go through the day's recordings transmitted by your outdoor surveillance camera, you can't just pick out a suspicious looking chap and show the video to the police. You have to be careful. Just because he looks suspicious does not warrant he's a thief or vandal. That's the beaut of it. Unless he is caught squeezing himself into the window and an indoor camera pans and zooms into his face, then you have your man.

The video and audio recordings in your home are admissible in court but not all the time. If you have a bone to pick with the nanny or a neighbor and you have proof of their misdeeds within your property, the recording will be their downfall in court. However, secret audio recordings of law enforcers are illegal if these are not obtained under the so called color of law.

To be safe, homeowners stick with video surveillance using their indoor or outdoor surveillance camera. Better record actions than verbal abuse or eavesdrop into private conversations. So don't risk your sanity with audio surveillance. Stick to those surveillance cameras and avoid the politics and legal implications that goes with audio interceptions. Now that is another politics and another story.