BP Report
In a bid to curb criminal activities in the capital, the process of installing 50,000 close circuit (CC) cameras is going on, sources said.
Currently, almost all the CC cameras in the capital city are installed at individual initiatives at different markets, houses and offices. A small number of CC cameras are installed by local police administration’s own initiative.
There are around one thousand CC cameras in Dhaka North City Corporation which have been installed by different organisations and individuals. However, those are much less than necessity.
There is no system to monitor the CC cameras centrally. Besides, in case of necessity, collecting required footages from those cameras also takes a long time.
To install 50 thousand CC cameras in Dhaka city, Police Headquarters is working on a project titled ‘Development of Dhaka City Digital Monitoring System’. The primary cost of the project is Tk 3000 crore.
Recently, police have unearthed many crime occurrences like killing, robbery, snatching and theft using footages and clues from CC cameras installed at individual initiative at different areas of the capital city. Police are also taking help of CC camera footages to catch criminals in other cities and towns in the country.
Recently miscreants attacked on police at the capitals Science Laboratory area, where there was no CC camera at the adjacent areas. However, there was a CC camera at a commercial building but it was facing the opposite to the place of occurrence.
In the same way, there was no CC camera at Farmgate where miscreants attacked on police last month. Besides, the spots at Gulistan and Malibagh where police came under attack recently were also outside the range of CC cameras installed by individuals. If there were CC cameras at those places it would be easy for police to identify and catch the criminals, sources at police department said.
Concerned people opine that the whole city should be brought under CC TV coverage. Criminal activities will come down remarkably if the city comes under digital monitoring system.
About the ‘Development of Dhaka City Digital Monitoring System’ project, Md Kamruzzaman, Police Super (Media, Police Headquarters) said that to curb criminal activities in the capital, the Police Headquarters has taken an initiative named ‘Save City’. Under this initiative, the project named ‘Development of Dhaka City Digital Monitoring System’ has been taken to install CC cameras at different streets and crime-prone areas in the city, he added.
