ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the security surveillance center from a legal and ethical perspective and the important role these perspectives play in the operation and perception of the security surveillance center. It explains the impact of the Fourth Amendment on security surveillance centers. Interpretations of the Fourth Amendment as it pertains to video surveillance appear to be in favor of the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) to protect the public. Transactions in plain view in a public area generally do not raise Fourth Amendment concerns. This is known as the plain view rule and open-field doctrine. Security surveillance center personnel must do technical things correctly, and they also must do ethically correct things. Security surveillance center professionals should not react emotionally when handling stressful situations. The foreseeability approach is the belief that a person with ordinary intelligence should have foreseen the impact of an action or scenario that would have put himself or herself or others in peril.
