Worried by a sign


There’s a sign at Outram Park MTR that says “This station is protected by about 40 security cameras”. That strikes me as unnecessarily vague. Singapore is somewhere that you feel people are diligent about following rules and doing things correctly, not just installing security cameras at random and failing to remember how many you have.

It’s not as if the sign is as you arrive at Changi, and says “there’s about 4 million cameras in Singapore.” Unless “about” is vague enough in Singlish that there’s somewhere between 9 and 100 cameras, they’re not saving any paint by not putting the exact number there. Which makes me think this vagueness is deliberate, rather than down to laziness.

Which is more worrying, when you think about it. The reason they’re not disclosing the exact number is because they think that it will discourage terrorists. If they did specify exactly how many cameras there were, then the terrorists would count them all, and then find somewhere to commit an atrocity safely. Whereas, one has to assume, if it’s only “around 40” then the ne’er-do-well will always be thinking “well, I’ve located myself in a place where 40 of the cameras will never be able to identify me – but what if there’s one more that I’ve missed? Better put down this bomb, go home and watch TV instead.”

Not that you want people to put bombs down in underground stations. Which I think demonstrates that this isn’t the smartest of plans.


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