Guides
CCTV signs: the cheapest deterrent you can buy
A CCTV notice at each entrance is worth fitting even though nothing in Pakistan strictly requires one. It deters at the doorway — before anything happens — and it keeps you straight with staff and visitors who are being recorded. A printed board costs a few hundred rupees; the camera behind it costs thousands.
Last reviewed
The sign works before the camera does
A camera earns its keep after something happens; a sign earns its before. A visible notice at a shop door in a busy markaz turns away a share of opportunists who would never have noticed the dome in the ceiling. The two do different jobs, which is why running cameras without signage wastes part of what you paid for. Put one at every public entrance, not just the front.
Placement: eye level, before the threshold
Mount the notice at eye level where it is read before a person is inside — on the door glass or beside the frame, not on a wall past the counter. In Islamabad it is worth printing the line in Urdu and English so nobody can claim they missed it. Sun-bleached boards stop registering within a couple of summers; we replace faded ones during AMC visits, because a sign nobody can read is doing nothing.
Staff areas need telling, not just signing
Where cameras cover working areas — a till line, a kitchen pass, a store room — put it in words as well as on the wall. A line in the appointment letter or a short briefing costs nothing and removes the sting when footage is ever reviewed. Covert cameras in staff areas create disputes that a visible camera and a sign never do, and we advise against them.
Do I need to put up a CCTV sign?
Do dummy cameras and signs work on their own?
Briefly, and then badly. Regulars spot a dummy within weeks, and when something does happen you have no footage at all. One real camera on the entrance with a genuine sign beats four dummies everywhere.
What should the sign actually say?
That recording is in operation, in Urdu and English, plus a contact number for the operator on business premises. Keep it short enough to read in two seconds at walking pace.
Rather have it done?
Business CCTV is built around the counter, the entrance, the stock area and the back door, with storage long enough to catch problems you only notice at stocktake. Systems for Islamabad marts, pharmacies, schools and offices start at PKR 85,000, and can tie into access control and your point of sale.
Business CCTV systems in Islamabad — prices and scope