Chapter 280: Jiang Village Surveillance

At the request of the Political Department, Jiang Yuan and the other officers took a group photo with the victim's family and jointly raised a banner of appreciation; once the ceremony ended, Jiang Yuan had little desire to go home.

He pulled out his phone, searched for travel destinations on a video app, then called his father: "Dad, want to go on a trip?"

"Sure," Jiang Fuzhen replied immediately, sipping wine alone in the kitchen.

"Guangxia," Jiang Yuan named the location. "I'll buy the tickets. You head toward Changyang now."

"Alright," Jiang Fuzhen said, and left at once—he told Qiang Uncle to take care of things, called Hua Auntie to finish cooking the meat and deliver it, then took the elevator down to the basement, where Jiang Yongxin's Elpha was already waiting.

By evening, Jiang Yuan and his father were already aboard a direct flight to Guangxia.

"Why the sudden urge to travel? Work not going well?" Jiang Fuzhen slipped on slippers, draped a small blanket over his legs, and settled in to chat with his son.

Jiang Yuan sipped water to moisten his lips, then said: "Work's been going pretty well—we solved a cold case, caught a pair of murderers, notified the victim's family, and the husband and son cried their hearts out."

Jiang Yuan shook his head. "I rarely met victims' families before… sigh…"

Jiang Fuzhen patted his son's shoulder and sighed softly. He wasn't good at comforting people—aside from sending money, he had no particularly effective way to soothe others.

The plane's engine noise faded.

Listening to the cabin's hum, Jiang Yuan drifted off to sleep. For several days straight, the father and son wandered aimlessly around Guangxia, eating, drinking, and strolling.

When they'd had enough, they flew back.

Jiang Yuan returned to Ningtai County.

At the front gate, he saw workers on a lift beside a tall streetlamp, installing a surveillance camera.

"Installing surveillance?" Jiang Yuan noticed immediately—he had V3 technical defense experience.

Jiang Fuzhen nodded. "They're planning to extend it all the way to the highway entrance. Soon, no one'll be able to steal electric bikes anymore."

"You know about this?" Jiang Yuan was surprised.

"Jiang Yongxin told me—he runs two stores and also sells electric bikes," Jiang Fuzhen smiled, strolling slowly past the lift.

Jiang Yuan watched closely.

The foundation of any surveillance system is camera installation.

Theoretically, the more cameras installed, the better the coverage.

But unlike ordinary people imagine, a single camera doesn't cover a vast area or meet multiple needs. In reality, most cameras are single-purpose: ones that zoom far can't capture fine details; ones mounted high can't clearly show what's in someone's hands.

Creating a truly comprehensive, no-dead-zone "city of cameras" is extremely difficult.

Take Beijing West Station: it has 1, 00 cameras. Forget how complex the system is—just ask how many people and how much time it would take to review all those video feeds.

Even if you just store them without reviewing, their value plummets dramatically.

Ningtai County obviously couldn't reach such a level of surveillance. Its only realistic option was targeted defense.

Even that was made possible only by external aid Jiang Yuan had secured. With its own budget, Ningtai County couldn't afford such resources for two or three years.

"This year's police recruitment exam in Ningtai was easy," Jiang Yuan recalled his own test, clicking his tongue. Such a massive video surveillance system would need at least a Video Investigation Platoon to function even barely.

To use it well, you'd likely need a full Video Investigation Company—though it wouldn't need to match the size of a Criminal Investigation Company. A normal setup of two or three platoons, plus some internal staff, fifty to eighty people, could fully utilize the county's surveillance system.

This is the current trend in police forces: Criminal Investigation Companies are shrinking, replaced by the growth of Special Police Companies, Patrol Companies, Cybersecurity Companies, and Video Investigation Companies.

Not to mention, fraud cases now account for half of all new cases. If not for the fact that many involve overseas actors—making them hard for city and county authorities to handle—the Cybersecurity Company should've already been expanded to match the size of a Criminal Investigation Company.

"With all these cameras, solving cases must be easier now," Jiang Fuzhen said, his thinking having shifted since his son became a cop.

Jiang Yuan smiled. "Probably. But premeditated criminals just pick other spots. Right now, the most common crime scenes are private homes." He added: "Tell Qiang Uncle to upgrade the building entrances and garages—make them safer." Jiang Fuzhen grimaced slightly—he was too wealthy and knew he was a high-risk target.

Jiang Yuan agreed wholeheartedly. When he got home, he made a special dog meal for the two Dobermans.

From a safety standpoint, some fully automated devices simply couldn't match a fully automated guard dog.

Compared to when they were first brought home, the two dogs had grown significantly in size and appetite.

Yet their craving for Level 5 dog food had never changed. Watching them devour the meal, Qiang Uncle even doubted himself: "I feed them too… these two dogs…"

Jiang Yuan comforted him: "Maybe it's just luck."

"No, it's not that—I've eaten your dog food before… I mean, the old stuff. It was genuinely delicious, but not enough to make them this excited…" Qiang Uncle clearly couldn't fully grasp canine joy.

Jiang Yuan laughed. "Enough about that. Qiang Uncle, I've been practicing the wrestling moves you taught me. Let's spar again."

"Sure," Qiang Uncle agreed, wiped oil from his mouth with his sleeve, laid out several thick yoga mats in the center of the living room, and began sparring with Jiang Yuan.

After thirty minutes, Jiang Yuan was aching all over and stopped training.

"Not bad. If you ever face a real enemy, stay calm—you'll be fine against most petty thieves."

Qiang Uncle added: "I mean unarmed thieves, right?"

"What if they're armed?"

"Haven't you seen the videos online? Just turn and run." Qiang Uncle continued: "If you sense danger, carry a baton or something. Whether you're armed or not makes a world of difference. Best of all, go with three or four people—if they've got guns, they'll think twice about whether they have enough bullets."

Jiang Fuzhen frowned. "Should we hire a security company?"

"Hiring security to protect a cop? Unnecessary. But let's install a surveillance system in our village." Jiang Yuan had considered this before—compared to Qinghe Academy, installing surveillance in Jiang Village was even easier.

Jiang Fuzhen shrugged. "Go ahead. You want to set up a security office to monitor the feeds?"

"More complex than that. I think we should start our own security company."

"Why not hire an existing one?" Qiang Uncle was surprised.

Jiang Fuzhen and Jiang Yuan both shook their heads.

Jiang Village was genuinely wealthy. If you handed over full security to outsiders, no one would feel safe.

That night.

Jiang Fuzhen roasted a whole lamb, steamed some seafood, and invited several of his peers from Jiang Village he got along with—Uncle Three, Uncle Five, and others.

In Jiang Village, the elders were the old power brokers with greater influence, but the ones who actually got things done were Jiang Fuzhen's generation.

Jiang Fuzhen and his brothers and cousins reached an agreement; the rest became simple.

Over the next two days, Jiang Fuzhen shared lamb meals with several more groups, then called a village assembly.

Jiang Village held assemblies often.

Even routine matters—parking space rentals, property leases, ancestral worship expenses—involved massive sums of money, and meetings proved the most efficient way to resolve them. But when it came to actual execution, Jiang Village didn't need to go through bidding, company selection, or other bureaucratic steps like the county did. Once Jiang Fuzhen and others agreed, they just hired workers directly. The entire project moved faster than the county's surveillance system.

Especially the security company—hiring staff was more than eight times faster than the county's process.

In less than a week, Jiang Yuan stood in the newly built "Jiang Village Security Surveillance Room" downstairs, meeting the six new recruits.