Surveillance equipment is a special tool used for security and protection. This equipment help in monitoring the behavior of people, objects or processes within the social system for conformity to expected or desired norms in trusted systems for safety or social control. Police officers, private eyes who need to please their customers, many banks or public buildings, and private citizens who desire to keep their belongings safe, all use some sort of surveillance tools.

The motivation behind the creation of surveillance equipment was to stop the theft of products from stores and warehouses. The basic idea behind the equipment is to send a message to would-be criminals that they will be seen'. The idea is to make people think twice about committing a crime, because of the risks of being seen, recognized, caught and be charged with an offense.

Depending on their importance, a wide range of surveillance equipment is available on the market. These tools vary from phone wiretaps and Internet-based devices to modern facial feature identification computer software known as biometrics. Surveillance equipment is typically small enough to go unnoticed by the majority of people.

Major types are video surveillance equipment, CCTV surveillance equipment, telephone surveillance equipment, PC surveillance equipment, employee surveillance equipment, GPS tracking surveillance equipment, loss prevention surveillance equipment, and counter surveillance equipment.

Airport terminals, shopping malls, parking garages, office buildings, warehouses and financial institutions also use video based surveillance equipment to help protect their goods. Various organizations also use this equipment to monitor their staffs activities so that they can limit the costly losses incurred by dishonest employees.

There are also situations where surveillance equipments are used for illegal activities such as extortion and blackmail. These incidents are few and far between; surveillance tools mostly are used for positive reasons, such as keeping people and property safe.