History Main / UselessSecurityCamera

* Often happens in ''{{CSI}}''. Usually whenever crimes take place in corner shops the owner will imply that it's not a real camera (or that it doesn't work) without even having to say it.

* [[http://www.shipmentoffail.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/security_camera_fail.jpg This image]] from Fail Blog. (As seen on InsecurityCamera)

* [[PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney]]'s built for DS case, Rise from the Ashes, features a murder that supposedly occurred in a room with a security camera. That's a conveniently easy stroke of luck...apart from the fact that said camera constantly pans back and forth and therefore misses all the important points. It also doesn't help that a big wooden, maniacal mascot that someone just had to go and place in said room constantly keeps covering up the faces of the people on the video in a almost parody fashion either.
** Although in terms of the panning camera, it's somewhat better to have a camera that captures the entire room then one with blind spots....the problem though is he fact that the camera pans and doesn't show the floor either which fills the ENTIRE ROOM with blind spots. This is actually pointed out in the game's dialogue and is how [[spoiler:the supposed "victim" managed to get out of the room without being picked up on camera]].

[[folder:NewspaperComics]]
* In ''BusStop'', Jason tries to find someone that he knew rode on a specific bus on a specific date, so he gets in touch with the bus company to try to look at their security camera footage. Turns out the bus camera only turns on if the driver activates the emergency switch. No emergencies happened on that particular date, that particular bus, so there was no footage to see.
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* In one episode of ''BreakingBad'', [[AmericanLawEnforcement DEA Agent]] Hank Schrader is trying to interrogate a gas station clerk to find out who sold her some meth. When he finally realizes she knows nothing, he looks up and asks if the security camera is regularly on. It isn't.

** DoubleSubverted in one ''LawAndOrder'' episode, in which a store camera is both active and shows the killer dragging his victims to where he kills them. The only reason it doesn't get used is because the killer had the video and the trick police used to stall him so he couldn't destroy the evidence before a search arrant arrived was more than the judge was willing to let slide.

* The camera was pointed in the wrong direction.

* Kevin Bacon's son's murderer in ''DeathSentence'' would probably have gotten a much larger sentence, thus preventing the plot of the movie, if the gas station's camera at the scene of the crime was working.

This frequently happens in detective and {{police procedural}} shows, in part to prevent the detectives from having an easy way to find the perp. ([[SpoiledByTheFormat|The less time left in an episode, the more likely the camera is to work, sometimes.]])

This frequently happens in detective and {{police procedural}} shows, in part to prevent the detectives from having an easy way to find the perp. (The less time left in an episode, the more likely the camera is to work, sometimes.)

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* In ''RiversOfLondon'', the first murder is caught on CCTV, but a key event in the lead-up to it, vital to figuring out who did it and why, occurred just outside the camera's field of view.

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* [[http://www.shipmentoffail.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/security_camera_fail.jpg This image]] from Fail Blog.

* Common in Real Life. Many retail stores use dummy cameras to discourage criminals, but these are usually in tandem with a few working ones. In fact, the reason why most in-store CCTV footage is crap and blurry grainy is that the store owners are cheapskates who are recycling the sme batch of video cassettes over and over again until they're over-recorded so often they are literally worn out.

* In ''RiversOfLondon'', the first murder is caught on CCTV, but a key event in the lead-up to it, vital to figuring out who did it and why, occured just outside the camera's field of view.

* The recording device the cameras are attached to stopped recording (back in the days of [=VCRs=] they commonly "ran out of tape."

* Used then subverted in ''{{Arthur}}'': A store that Buster steals an action figure from has a broken camera, but Buster thought it was working and confesses.

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* Used then subverted in ''{{Arthur}}'': A store that Buster steals an action figure from has a broken camera, but Buster thought it was working and confesses.
* Subverted in ''PhineasAndFerb'': A traffic cam caught not only the boys' inventions, but Perry's comings and goings for the [=OWCA=].

Examples:
* Used then subverted in ''{{Arthur}}'': A store that Buster steals an action figure from has a broken camera, but Buster thought it was working and confesses.
* In ''BusStop'', Jason tries to find someone that he knew rode on a specific bus on a specific date, so he gets in touch with the bus company to try to look at their security camera footage. Turns out the bus camera only turns on if the driver activates the emergency switch. No emergencies happened on that particular date, that particular bus, so there was no footage to see.

* Subverted in ''PhineasAndFerb'': A traffic cam caught not only the boys' inventions, but Perry's comings and goings for the [=OWCA=].

Real life examples:

* Truth In Television in Britain (especially London) where there's the highest concentration of security cameras in the world, but most of them are of incredibly low quality and pointed where they're only of what little use they are for protecting their owners' property (rather than there in case some poor Victim Of The Week flees that way).

* Also subverted in ''PhineasAndFerb'': A traffic cam caught not only the boys' inventions, but Perry's comings and goings for the [=OWCA=].