East and Centurion to get CCTV cameras
The City of Tshwane will install cameras in its quest to combat crime.
Pretoria East and Centurion are set to become a whole lot safer with the installation of 151 CCTV cameras. These cameras will augment the CCTV cameras already erected in town in the municipality’s quest to combat crime and make fast responses possible in emergency situations.
It has been years since the inception of the original CCTV project from the City of Tshwane. The first cameras were erected in the central city area. Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the Tshwane metro mayor, promised in his State of the City Address that additional cameras would be forthcoming. Currently, the city has 168 CCTV cameras mostly in the city centre, Sunnyside and Hatfield. Provision has now been made for an additional 151 cameras, 19 of which will be erected in the Lyttelton area and 132 of which will be set up in the east. These cameras will be linked to the central control room in the city centre.
The cameras are to be erected at hotspots and road junctions that have proven problematic with regards to crime and traffic incidents.
In various high-use roads in the east of Pretoria, poles not quite as high as street light poles have gone up. These will be the base of the cameras. Karen Meyer, DA shadow MMC for community safety, said that the roll-out of the cameras to make the city a safer place was welcomed, but that there were a few worrying factors that should be addressed, since these could hamper the swiftness and effectiveness of the project.
“First of all, Council is experiencing problems with tender delays, which might result in the cameras not being operative in the next few months. Furthermore, it seems that the latest technology is not being used, as the poles are connected with electrical cables, which will not be viable in the long run. Another problem is the distribution of information obtained through the CCTV cameras. It is of the utmost importance that the council, in one way or another, conveys information obtained through the cameras to all relevant security entities and emergency services, as the city does not have enough metro police officers to deal with all the issues themselves,” she explained.
Currently, in the city centre areas are structured into clusters and each cluster has a security group with radios in the control room that conveys the incidents observed to the relevant security entities. “There is not enough space in the control room to accommodate all security groups in the east of Pretoria. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that the council invite all relevant security role players in the new affected areas to a meeting to look at a possible solution to ensure the proper use of the CCTV cameras through communication. If this is not addressed effectively and efficiently, then the new cameras will not be used to their full potential,” she said.
Cameras for the east:
Cameras planned for Centurion:
