Street cameras tackle City’s high crime rate
These cameras are rolled out by Vumacam and they are connected to its network, which feeds the footage into a local security company’s command centre – where it is monitored in real-time.
Residents of Boksburg may have been wondering what the function is of the circular grey domes with cameras on them, mushrooming on many street poles at the city’s busiest intersections.
When this network of surveillance cameras first hit Gauteng’s streets, many people thought its function was to put communities under authorities’ surveillance or to spy on them. Nonetheless, the Advertiser has gathered information to the contrary.
According to the Boksburg monitoring company, Makopano Security Solutions, the cameras in question are a Vumacam and Makopano project initiated to enhance the fight against crime, and they have a significant impact on reducing crime in the existing sites.
In Boksburg, these cameras have led to multiple arrests of suspects and the recovery of stolen and hijacked vehicles since they went live late last year.
These cameras are rolled out by Vumacam and they are connected to its network, which feeds the footage into a local security company’s command centre – where it is monitored in real-time.
“Those cameras are there for security purposes, and not to infringe upon people’s rights or threaten civil liberties. The footage is securely stored for a substantial amount of time, and can only be used for investigation purposes in flagged crime activities reported to any of the police stations across the country. Flagged incidents include robbery, carjacking, theft of motor vehicles and traffic accidents,” explained Makopano’s Janus Weir.
These surveillance cameras are not using facial-recognition technology, but they use License Plate Recognition (LPR) software. The LPR cameras use the software to scan and capture videos of passing vehicles’ licence plates to track vehicles of interest.
Although they scan every vehicle licence plates moving in their vicinity, they are not necessarily used to track every passing vehicle.
However, the system triggers an alert if the cameras scan and recognise a vehicle that was involved in a crime countrywide.
“Using the LPR software, they scan vehicle registration plates and match them to the police database for vehicles linked to various crimes.
“Once we receive the alert relayed to our control room, we react accordingly to recover the vehicle or arrest the suspects involved. “The case is then handed over to the SAPS for further investigation and prosecution.
“We have seen great results of LPR-linked arrests and vehicle recoveries since the LPR cameras went live in our existing sites in Boksburg.
“In one of these cases, we managed to recover a stolen vehicle and arrested the suspect after the system alerted us to a reported stolen vehicle, which was parked in one of the shopping centres in Sunward Park,” said Weir.
Apart from assisting in criminal investigations, the footage is also used in the investigation of vehicle crashes. However, except for the police and insurance companies, the service provider is prohibited from supplying footage to the public, and this is in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI Act).
Makopano is so far monitoring around 60 live cameras in Boksburg and intends to roll out the project in the entire Boksburg area. Existing sites include the cameras at the intersection of Rondebult Road and Kingfisher Avenue in Sunward Park and North Rand Road, Bartlet.
Making Boksburg a safer place
These security surveillance cameras are a Makopano community project in partnership with Vumacam.
“We at Makopano cover the costs involved and they are quite high. But it’s our mission to make Boksburg a safer place by preventing crime and react to it. We regard the successes that we achieve as our return on the investment,” said Weir.
“It’s also important to point out that the Vumacam cameras are installed when way leaves and all the necessary permissions have been granted by the respective municipality.”
Residents who need information or are eager to get the smart camera network up and running in their area can contact Weir at janus@makopano.co.za
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