The Minister for National Security has disclosed that 6,500 CCTV cameras have been installed in Accra, Kumasi and other regional capitals for detecting criminal activities.
4,000 of these cameras, he said, have been powered and are online and are helping the security services to solve some of the recent violent crimes such as armed robbery and kidnappings.
Mr. Kan Dapaah disclosed this on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday when he responded to a question that stood in the name of MP for Wa West, Mr. Peter Lanchene Toobu on the state of the project to fix CCTV cameras in all police stations across the country.
According to him, assessment of CCTV deployments across the world indicates countries with enhanced security have a greater saturation of cameras per citizen for security and surveillance purposes.
“As per a research carried out in 2020, the city of London has 73.31 cameras per 1,000 citizens, Beijing has 55.03 cameras per 1,000 citizens and New Delhi has 33.73 cameras per 1,000 people,” he stated.
Ghana, he said, is currently doing less than one camera for every 1,000 citizens and stressed the need to make the relevant investments in the sector to enhance security.
Addressing the substantive question of the Wa West legislator, Mr. Kan Dapaah indicated that the police service has some 900 police stations in total operation across the country and indicated all 432 Regional, Divisional and District Police Stations out of the number have been provided with CCTV coverage to enable monitoring of these installations.
The remaining 468 stations, he said, would be covered in subsequent phases of the project.
He said, “Roll out is currently ongoing, and all 432 stations will be completed before the close of the year.”
“Even as brisk efforts are made to complete the existing phase, the relevant planning works are also being carried out to pursue additional phased deployments of cameras to cover the outstanding areas that cannot be served under this phase.”
In 2012 the then government, through the Ministry of Communications and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, signed a contract for the establishment of the first phase of the Integrated National Security Communications Enhancement Project (Alpha Project Phase 1), to install a network of CCTV cameras and cellular technologies to enhance the operational efficiencies of security intelligence agencies of the country.
The first phase of the project delivered about 800 CCTV cameras in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and some critical border areas like Aflao, Elubo and Paga, and critical national installations and some towns across the country.
It also delivered a National Command Center and Operations centres for emergency response command and control for law enforcement, Security and Intelligence and Emergency Response Agencies.
The project was largely successful, enhancing the communications of various agencies and assisting to detect crime, road infractions, supporting major public events and providing evidence to support investigations and prosecution of many cases captured by the CCTV network.
The government, through the Ministry of National Security, Huawei Technologies and China Machinery Engineering Corporation, in December, 2018, signed a contract for the implementation of the second phase of the project to further enhance the capabilities of the system, by installing 10,000 more cameras and extending its cellular capabilities to every district across the country.
Source: Mypublicher24.com/Osumanu Al-Hassan