The theater of surveillance
Surveillance cameras in Medellin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24197/st.1.2024.66-87Keywords:
CCTV, Security Assamblage, Securirty Teathre, MedellínAbstract
Surveillance studies and Science and Technology studies have made important empirical and conceptual proposals for the study of surveillance assemblies. Surveillance cameras have been proposed as a solution to crime problems in the world, and despite multiple studies that question their effectiveness, they continue to be central in the speeches of politicians when promoting security. Most of the studies on CCTV in Latin America and especially in Colombia, focus precisely on understanding or evaluating their effectiveness and analyzing the consequences for space and citizens. This article presents the trajectory of the security assembly in Medellín, emphasizing its trajectory and what Schneier calls the theater of surveillance. This article presents a case of such theater and presents evidence to exemplify it. The work is the result of a documentary research, both in archives and in the news media. The analysis of these documents made it possible to identify the instances in which the theater of surveillance is executed, while establishing discourses and technologies that support each other. It concludes with a reflection on the importance of understanding the technological trajectories of these systems in order to identify possible alternatives to the problem of security.
Downloads
References
Alcaldía de Barranquilla. (2022). Distrito continúa fortaleciendo los frentes de seguridad en Barranquilla. Barranquilla.Gov.Co. https://www.barranquilla.gov.co/seguridad/distrito-continua-fortaleciendo-los-frentes-de-seguridad-en-barranquilla
Gaceta Oficial, (1998) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Gaceta Oficial, (2001) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Gaceta Oficial, (2002) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Gaceta Oficial, (2008) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Gaceta Oficial, (2010) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Medellín Más Segura, (2010) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Alcaldía de Medellín. (2022). Con tecnología e inteligencia fueron desmanteladas dos bandas dedicadas al hurto de automotores en Medellín. Medellin.Gov.Co. https://www.medellin.gov.co/irj/portal/medellin?NavigationTarget=contenido/12659-Con-tecnología-e-inteligencia-fueron-desmanteladas-dos-bandas-dedicadas-al-hurto-de-automotores-en-Medellín
Arboleda, F. L. T., & Ariza, L. J. (2022). Urban surveillance and crime governance in Bogotá. City, Culture and Society, 31, 100486.
Bañuelos, J. (2004). Semiótica de la Imagen de Vigilancia. Razón y Palabra, 37.
Batchgeo.com. (2022). How Many Surveillance Cameras Are in Your City? Blog.Batchgeo.Com. https://blog.batchgeo.com/surveillance-cameras-in-your-city/
Bauman, Z., & Lyon, D. (2013). In/seguridad y vigilancia. In Vigilancia líquida (pp. 107–126). Paidos.
Centro de Memoria Histórica. (2017). Medellín: memorias de una guerra urbana. In Bogotá: Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica. Centro de Memoria Histórica.
Plan de desarrollo 2004-2007, (2004) (testimony of Consejo de Medellín).
D. Haggerty, Richard V. Ericson, K. (2000). The surveillant assemblage. British Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071310020015280
de Vasconcelos Cardoso, B. (2012). The paradox of caught-in-the-act surveillance scenes: dilemmas of police video surveillance in Rio de Janeiro. Surveillance & Society, 10(1), 51–64.
Firmino, R., & Trevisan, E. (2012). Eyes of glass: Watching the watchers in the monitoring of public places in Curitiba, Brazil. Surveillance & Society, 10(1), 28–41.
Gómez, S., Mejía, D., & Tobón, S. (2021). The deterrent effect of surveillance cameras on crime. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 40(2), 553–571.
Green, N., & Zurawski, N. (2015). Surveillance and ethnography: Researching surveillance as everyday life. Surveillance & Society, 13(1), 27–43.
Henao, J. (2010). Metroseguridad será ahora ESU. EL Colombiano. https://www.elcolombiano.com/historico/metroseguridad_sera_ahora_esu-MEEC_104686
Hopkins, N. (2013). UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation. The Guardian, 7, 2013.
Jaime Andrés, S., & Diana Emilce, R. P. (2016). Comportamiento del fenómeno de la desaparición. Colombia, 2015. https://www.medicinalegal.gov.co/documents/20143/49523/Desaparecidos.pdf
Koskela, H. (2000). ‘The gaze without eyes’: video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space. Progress in Human Geography, 24(2), 243–265.
Lio, V. (2015). Ciudades, cámaras de seguridad y video-vigilancia: estado del arte y perspectivas de investigación. Astrolabio, 15, 273–302.
López, L. C. J. (2020). Seguridad ciudadana y tecnología: Uso, planeación y regulación de la videovigilancia en América Latina. Dikê: Revista de Investigación En Derecho, Criminología y Consultoría Jurídica, 27, 5–27.
Lyon, D., Haggerty, K. D., & Ball, K. (2012). Introducing surveillance studies. In Routledge handbook of surveillance studies (pp. 1–11). Routledge.
Medellín Cómo Vamos. (2021). Informe de Calidad de Vida de Medellín. https://www.medellincomovamos.org/system/files/2021-09/docuprivados/Seguridad Informe de Calidad de Vida de Medellín%2C 2020.pdf
Plan de Desarrollo Medellín Futuro 2020 - 2023, (2020) (testimony of Alcaldía de Medellín).
Mols, A., & Pridmore, J. (2019). When citizens are “actually doing police work”: The blurring of boundaries in WhatsApp neighbourhood crime prevention groups in The Netherlands. Surveillance & Society, 17(3/4), 272–287.
Pérez Ramirez, C. (2011). Medellín “Sies” Segura. El Mundo. https://www.elmundo.com/portal/pagina.general.impresion.php?idx=186997
Piza, E. L., Welsh, B. C., Farrington, D. P., & Thomas, A. L. (2019). CCTV surveillance for crime prevention: A 40‐year systematic review with meta‐analysis. Criminology & Public Policy, 18(1), 135–159.
Ramírez, J. G. (2008). El Conflicto armado urbano y violencia homicida. El caso de Medellín. URVIO: Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios de Seguridad, 5, 99–113.
Ratcliffe, J. H., Taniguchi, T., & Taylor, R. B. (2009). The crime reduction effects of public CCTV cameras: a multi‐method spatial approach. Justice Quarterly, 26(4), 746–770.
Sáenz, P. Spanger, A. (2018). Análisis del fallido sistema de videovigilancia inteligente para Transmilenio. https://web.karisma.org.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Camaras-indiscretas-1.pdf
Schneier, B., & Schneier, B. (2003). Beyond fear: Thinking sensibly about security in an uncertain world (Vol. 10). Springer.
Secretaría Distrital de Gobierno. (2022). Las cuadras más seguras de Usme gracias a ‘Presupuestos Participativos.’ Goviernobogota.Gov.Co. https://www.gobiernobogota.gov.co/noticias/nivel-central/las-cuadras-mas-seguras-usme-gracias-presupuestos-participativos
Smith, E., & Lyon, D. (2013). Comparison of survey findings from Canada and the USA on surveillance and privacy from 2006 and 2012. Surveillance & Society, 11(1/2), 190–203.
Star, S. L. (1999). The ethnography of infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist, 43(3), 377–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326
Urtasun, M. (2014). Superar el punto ciego: La vigilancia en Latinoamérica y sus estudios. Cuestiones de Sociología, 10.
Walby, K., & Anais, S. (2015). Research methods, institutional ethnography, and feminist surveillance studies. Feminist Surveillance Studies, 208–220.
Wood, D. M. (2012). Globalization and surveillance. In Routledge handbook of surveillance studies (pp. 333–342). Routledge.
Wood, D. M. (2016). Beyond the panopticon? Foucault and surveillance studies. In Space, Knowledge and Power (pp. 257–276). Routledge.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Iván Santiago Londoño , Javier Guerrero-C
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Sociología y tecnociencia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
The journal allows the authors to retain publishing rights. Authors may reprint their articles in other media without having to request authorization, provided they indicate that the article was originally published in Sociología y Tecnociencia.
