City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis introduces new safety feature in law enforcement. Photo: City of Cape Town/ Facebook
City of Cape Town invests R860 million in safety technology
The City of Cape Town will equip 800 of its officers with bodycams and install 290 in-vehicle dashboard-mounted cameras.
City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis introduces new safety feature in law enforcement. Photo: City of Cape Town/ Facebook
In a bid to improve safety and security, the City of Cape Town has invested R860 million in equipping law enforcement officers with body-worn cameras and in-vehicle cameras with Automated Number Plate (ANPR) technology.
ABOUT THE SAFETY TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT BY CITY OF CAPE TOWN
This rollout is the first of its kind in South Africa and forms part of the City’s R860 million safety technology investment over the next three years to make Cape Town safer, according to the City of Cape Town.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis trialled the new body and in-vehicle camera tech during a demonstration in Goodwood on Wednesday 30 August.
“We take the next big step forward in our promised investment in new safety technology to make Cape Town safer. The City will equip 800 of our officers with bodycams and install 290 in-vehicle dashboard-mounted cameras or ‘dashcams’ this financial year.”
Hill-Lewis
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R860 MILLION INVESTMENT TO BE SPENT OVER A PERIOD OF THREE YEARS
He said in the next couple of years, this technology will be standard across their safety services to make Cape Town safer.
“The ‘dashcams’ are equipped with Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology so that officers will be alerted to wanted vehicles and outstanding warrants instantly in their vehicles.
“These devices are used widely around the world and have shown tremendous success. This is the first time they are being deployed at this scale for a government agency in South Africa.
“We’ve already seen the game-changing ability of the ANPR dashcams piloted in our new Highway Patrol Unit launched last year. Based on these learnings, we’re now rolling out cutting-edge in-vehicle cameras across our vehicles. Together with body-worn cameras, this will massively enhance situational awareness and the quality of evidence gathering to ensure more convictions,” Hill-Lewis explained.
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MAYOR HILL-LEWIS EXPLAINS THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
He added that this also increases trust and accountability in the municipal police and law enforcement, as interactions with the public will now always be recorded. “This is important to us. We want Cape Town’s safety services to be trusted by the public, even while trust in other law enforcement agencies is declining. There is also global evidence which shows a steep drop in attacks on law enforcement officers after the introduction of these cameras.
Cape Town’s overall tech investment amounts to R860 million over the next three years, including CCTV, dash and bodycams, aerial surveillance, drones, gunshot detection tech, and the master digital system to coordinate it all – known as EPIC,’ Mayor Hill-Lewis further explained.
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In summary, Cape Town’s R860m+ safety tech investment includes:
- R118.4m on CCTV
- R118m on Dash and bodycams
- R109m for Aerial surveillance
- R22m on drones
- R10m on gunshot location tech
- R442m on Licence Plate Recognition, EPIC digital coordination, radios, comms systems, IT and network upgrades
