The Safe City project, launched to boost security in the the provincial capital, has been hit by a financial crisis.
Difficulties in tracking the the accused and suspects in crimes are on the rise because as many as 3,000 out of 8,000 cameras installed under the project are malfunctioning.
The Lahore Safe City project of Rs16 billion is five times bigger than the Islamabad project. Under the project, more than 8,000 cameras of different types have been installed. The two main objectives of the project are to change the culture of the police station and to ensure the monitoring of the city with the help of cameras. Under this project, a traffic management system has also been introduced that is the first such initiative in the country. But now the project is facing financial problems due to which the faulty cameras have not been repaired for the past several months.
The problem is also affecting the police investigation system and the arrests of the accused in various cases have reportedly declined.
Safe Cities Authority CEO Kamran Khan said cameras had also been installed on police patrol vehicles. They provide information about the presence of the police and suspects at a spot, through which accountability of the police is also being improved. In addition, during an operation, the operation commander is informed of the situation through a 4G handset in the possession of the police team.
The cameras installed under the project employ modern technology and have been selected after a thorough analysis before their installation in important places.
The official said the Safe Cities Project is proving to be helpful in counter-terrorism, emergency response, traffic management and fighting crime in Punjab.
The project has been implemented in Lahore and Kasur, and similar projects are being implemented in Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Multan, Gujranwala and Sargodha, for which buildings are under construction.
More than 480 cameras have been installed for the Kasur Safe City Project which is connected to the Lahore project through optic fibre. The situation in Kasur can also be monitored from Lahore, while the control is in the Kasur DPO office in which the staff works. In this year's budget, funds have been allocated by the Punjab government for the Rawalpindi Safe City Project and the work will be started soon.
The Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control and Communication (PPIC III) Center has been established in Lahore. Asia's largest video wall was built at the centre from where the whole city is being monitored.
In addition to face recognition, surveillance, reading vehicle number plates, giving good and clear pictures in the dark of night, cameras installed on the vehicles of PRUs and police stations are helpful in performing various tasks.
Every effort is made to repair the damaged cameras as soon as possible so that the utility of the project is not affected, the CEO said.
Recently, a private company was awarded a contract that included maintenance of the cameras but it quit reportedly due to funding problems.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 23rd, 2020.
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