CLOSED-CURCUIT television (CCTV) cameras along the beachfront and inner city will be operating at 96 per cent to beef up security measures as the eThekwini Municipality expects thousands of holidaymakers to flock to Durban over the festive season.
The decision comes after a Finance, Security and Emergency Services Committee meeting held on 21 November at the Durban City Hall. Some of the new cameras installed in these areas have licence and facial recognition and are operational from the control centre.
They also boast additional analytics such as crowd detection said eThekwini Mayor Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda who recently launched the beachfront extension promenade.
“As the city we have developed a festive season safety plan to ensure that residents and visitors are safe during the festive season and beyond. One of the issues we have prioritised as the municipality is to increase police visibility and the installation of CCTV cameras in tourists attraction areas so that we are able to identify wanted suspects and people who plan and commit crime in these areas,” he said.
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Presenting the report on the CCTV cameras at the committee meeting, Yarish Brijmohan from the City’s Disaster Management and Emergency Control Unit said the CCTV cameras utilise new technology.
“Because of the new software installed we are able to integrate all cameras installed in the city, including those installed in buildings, on a centralised platform. The new cameras have licence and facial recognition and are operational from the control centre,” he said.
“The control room gets an automatic notification when there is a build-up of a crowd. We are also able to search for a particular person who may for example be wearing a red shirt or a vehicle according to a specific colour,” said Brijmohan.
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He added that 52 percent of the City’s 432 CCTV cameras are currently operational.
The others are not working largely due to fibre optic faults with 10 per cent attributed to electricity faults and 10 per cent being equipment faults.
The report stated that fibre related faults for cameras will be attended to with the awarding of a fibre contract for the city and analog cameras will be converted to IP.
“The contract for the fibre optic cable has been awarded and they will repair these faults at a rate of 30 percent a month by numerous contractors. We expect 350 cameras to be running by the end of December,” Brijmohan said.
