HLS210DB – HUMINT, CCTV Surveillance and Biometric Scanning As Used In Homeland Security

Security is a major issue to any individual and more so to a country. It is one of the essentials that one has to have to have peace. In this text, we are going to look at three types of technologies that aid the provision of maximum technologies. These include HUMINT (Human Intelligence), CCTV surveillance and Biometric Scanning.

Human intelligence deals with the collection and analysis of evidence and more so conversion of action. This form of technology is suitable for its purpose in that it is very straight forward and enables the collection of information from sources that cannot be easily obtained from the public means (Bickerton, 1995). Its analysis of information is very accurate as it classifies the information collected and combines it with the public sources and thus gives a precise information to the customer. This type of technology has several limitations. This include:

  • Low RAM. Humans can only process what their mind can hold and the complexity that it can handle. There is so much that the mind might not be able to hold to it leaves it at that since you might not understand.
  • No error correction. Once a wrong decision is made and not realized early enough, it might lead to a lot of issues(Sternberg, 1997)

This type of human technology can be used to facilitate illegal activities without any difficulty. As long as the person hired to do the investigation says nothing about it, the planned process can swiftly go on. For example, if a robbery crew is planning to rob a bank, they may decide to hire someone to do an investigation that would aid in the swiftness of the robbery process.

This type of technology has a great impact on the homeland security and the American citizens at large. This is in that it aids to know the inside operations that people may be planning without the knowledge of enforcement officers and also aid in the arrest of criminals related to a crime they committed hence securing the citizens and the country as a whole.

The next type of technology is the closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance. This is the use of video cameras that are used to transmit signals to one specific place by use of limited monitor sets(Ratcliffe, Taniguchi, & Taylor, 2009).

This type of technology is very effective in that it enables monitoring of all activities that are going on in a particular place which could be hard if done manually. It also records the previous occurrences and thus enables one to know what was happening when they were not watching. This system however has several limitations. It is very prone to hacking. This is so when people might be intending to carry out an illegal activity. It is also a wired technology and the disadvantage with this us that it cannot be transferred to another place. This system can also haunt privacy at certain times as long as it is on(Ratcliffeet al 2009).

This technology can be used outside its intended purpose in cases where one wants to gather information illegally. This can be through installation of quite tiny cameras that are hardly noticeable. It is thus not difficult to use this technology for illegal purpose as they are readily available in the market and one can purchase them depending on what they want to gather.

In spite these disadvantages, the CCTV cameras have become one of the most reliable means of maintaining security of any particular place. It is thus the most preferred by most of the American citizens and the legal force.

The last type of technology we are going to look at is the biometric scanner. This is a type of technology that is used for identification of individual especially under surveillance. They are used to describe and label the individuals(Price- Francis, 1998). The system is very efficient for its purpose in that it is able to look at all aspects of a person to be identifies such as the finger prints, palm print, DNA, hand geometry and even facial recognition.

This type of technology however has several limitations. Some of the limitations occur on facial recognition whereby then the 2D recognition is used, it can be affected by the changes in the age, lighting, the person’s hair and much more. In the voice recognition, a limitation might occur especially if a person catches a cold. This might change the person’s voice and thus identification might be a problem. It is also less accurate(Price- Francis, 1998).

This technology is has however made it difficult to use it for illegal purposes. It is very hard to fake things such as a finger print in cases, for example, when one wants to gain access to a particular place. The entry will this be denied.

This technology is thus very suitable in enabling security as it is very efficient. It is used mostly in banks where only few authorized personnel can access specific parts of the bank. Individuals can also use them in their own houses to secure the safes where they put their valuables.

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