The technology of surveillance equipment is continuing to advance at a very rapid pace. As a result surveillance equipment has become almost ubiquitous in retail stores, public schools, gas stations, and airport terminals all across the United States. There is a wide range of surveillance technology that is available on the market. Surveillance equipment ranges from wiretapping phone and internet based equipment to high tech facial feature recognition computer software known as biometrics.

Surveillance equipment makes the world infinitely more manageable for people who need to protect their belongings and protect people and make its far more difficult for people who actually want to commit crime. As more of the high-tech surveillance equipment becomes more and more easily available to the general public and small business owners, more and more people will reap the benefits.

The basic concept that underpins a piece of surveillance-equipment is one of "you will be seen". The gist of it is that criminals may well think twice about committing a crime if they think they might be seen, identified and then found later on and be charged with a crime. Although it is unlikely that everything can be caught on surveillance camera at one time, on the occasions when surveillance does pick up activity, it does provide enormous help to security and police in identifying the offenders.

These days the more advanced surveillance equipment operates in the same way in an effort prevent crime from occurring, so it has not veered from its original intent. Indeed many small businesses decide to install dummy cameras that don"t actually record anything, indeed don"t even turn on, but act more as a preventative measure for potential offenders.

One of the main reasons for the establishment of surveillance equipment is to prevent the theft of merchandise from stores and warehouses. Usually offenders come from outside the company and so the theft can be caught on tape and referred to the police. But on occasion the offender will actually come from within the company and then employee policy needs to be implemented. Upon discovering the internal offender that employee will usually find themselves without a job.

Apart from the examples outlined earlier, shopping malls, parking garages, office buildings, and warehouses and financial institutions all now commonly use video based surveillance equipment in order to protect their wares and to also to limit the costly losses incurred by dishonest employees. Major department stores who have high internal theft rates use these video surveillance systems to actively prosecute thieving employees.