Dhaka Bureau: To control crime in the capital and identify criminals, closed-circuit cameras (CC cameras) are going to be brought under the coverage of the entire capital. However, it is not by spending government money that an initiative has been taken to connect the CCTV installed in common people’s homes, markets, and shops with the police control room. Work has already started. Surrounding areas, including Gulshan, Banani, Baridhara, Niketan, and Tejgaon, have been connected with the control room. About 2000 CCTVs have been connected to the control room. The work of connecting 50,000 CCTVs in the entire capital is underway.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Khandkar Golam Farooq told the media that the CCTVs installed by private enterprises in Gulshan, Banani, and Baridhara areas have been connected to our central control room. Similarly, if one of the CCTVs installed by private enterprises in Dhaka city is connected to our central control room, then at least 80% of the entire capital’s area will come under our network. With the help of the community, i.e., with the help of the people, we are trying to bring the entire Dhaka city under CCTV without doing any new projects.
Police officials say the CCTVs, which have already been installed, have started requesting upgrades. Many have upgraded their CCTV. A live feed will be available from here once the cameras are upgraded. Besides face detection, automatic alarm systems and number plate identification of vehicles violating traffic laws will also be possible. These cameras have 11 special features.
The police commissioner said we are taking separate action against vehicles violating traffic laws. CCTV will be installed separately on the road. CCTV has already been installed at 14 entry and exit points in Dhaka city. A control room has been set up at Gulshan for CCTV monitoring of the Gulshan area. Apart from this, the Central Control Room is located opposite the Secretariat on Abdul Gani Road. It is known that the Dhaka Metropolitan Police has about 680 CCTVs in its monitoring system at 221 points in Dhaka city. Besides, there are 625 CCTVs in 199 places in the Dhaka South City Corporation area.
“We are reaching out to CCTV owners through police stations and requesting that they improve the quality of the cameras,” said a senior DMP official. He said, “Our plan is to tag this technology with the police’s national emergency number, 999, to get quick service.”
Those concerned say that the crime in Gulshan and Banani areas has reduced a lot due to the initiative of CCTV under the leadership of the police. At the same time, if face detection is done with this CCTV, the police officials think that the crime rate will reduce a lot. They say if any criminal in our database falls in front of the camera, the message will go to the central control room. They think that it will make crime control easier.
