July 16, 2002
By Bongani Majola
THE number of surveillance cameras capturing action in the inner city has shot up to 150 in the past few weeks, as Business Against Crime Surveillance Technology (Bacst) intensifies its activities. Bacst, a private company employed by the City of Johannesburg to provide electronic monitoring, is tasked with supplementing the city's available resources of law and order, maintenance and services.
Going about town on normal business is not likely to draw camera attention. But those who commit crimes and acts of vandalism in the city of Johannesburg are going to be captured by close circuit television and be put firmly on the road to prison.
The company operates under the big umbrella of Business Against Crime (BAC) initiatives, a joint partnership formed between government and the private sector, through donations and sponsorships, with a view of combating crime and increasing investor confidence in the country. The initiative was started in 1996 by then president Nelson Mandela, who invited business to join hands with business in the fight against crime.
Since the introduction of the cameras, crime levels in the inner city have been reduced by 80%, according to BAC communications director Neville Huxham.
Surveillance has grown from Bacst's 15-camera project two years ago. Operated by people from previously disadvantaged groups, mostly black women and the disabled, the cameras can zoom in on any part of the inner city, providing clear video footage any time of the day.
At any given moment, in a huge room filled with banks of video monitors on the sixth floor of the Carlton Centre, two people sit at each desk monitoring the activities on the 12 camera screens in front of them. The video footage is so clear you can see and identify a woman buying fruit from a hawker. On another zoom, traffic police can be seen following a suspicious car into the M1 south bridge above the Newtown Cultural Precinct. There are two passengers in the car, with hats pulled almost totally over their faces.
One of the world's most advanced systems, the surveillance network bears the South African Bureau of Standards' (SABS) seal of approval, the ISO 9001, in affirmation of its international recognition.
And if there is any notion that these cameras are for fun, let it be speedily dashed, as footage from these is acceptable as evidence in South Africa's courts, saving a lot of time and energy. Many an offender has seen prison walls because of the cameras.
Inside the monitoring control-room, there is a real, not virtual, police station. At any time, there are five police officers paying close scrutiny to their own set of cameras in the special office inside the control-room they use as a police station. Needless to say any crime situation is hastily followed by an immediate dispatch of police reinforcements to the area.
If the monitors spot an incident, police on the streets are sent a radio message and they reach the trouble spot in an average 60 seconds reaction time. Processes are underway to close the reaction time to 10 seconds.
The cameras have yielded moments of high drama, too, almost befitting a television script. A few weeks ago, petrol service station attendants were caught on film, in full regalia, surreptitiously unloading a truck-full of petrol into huge garbage containers allegedly for the purposes, we are told by BAC, of selling it to taxi drivers. Arrests followed swiftly.
However, says BAC's communication consultant Neville Huxham, "the cameras are not for crime prevention only. They are used essentially to provide a managed environment. We also identify, for example, accidents, incidents of fire or blockade of any kind and then notify relevant authorities."
While some of the cameras focus on identified crime hot-spots, others rotate in a carefully worked out pattern around inner city streets. The people monitoring the cameras watch for any odd behaviour, in the process picking up such things as people exchanging suspicious material like drugs, weapons, and so on.
At the end of each day, the video material is taken off the cameras and stored securely for any future reference. "In addition," says Huxham, "we are also daily building a rogues' gallery of hangers-on, known loiterers, for any potential links to already committed crimes."
The First National Bank, by far the worst hit by bank robberies in the city, has joined with BAC, deploying three bank officials into the control room to monitor bank activities against any possible criminal behaviour, in particular armed robberies. Other banks are expected to roll in soon, according to Huxham.
So it's not Big Brother who is watching you, but Business Against Crime, which is watching the whole city of Johannesburg. By the end of the year, the cameras will be rolled out to include 350 cameras covering the entire city from Braamfontein in the north, to Ellis Park stadium in the east, the M2 freeway in the south and Newton in the west.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
