Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis (left) with a law enforcement officer
The City of Cape Town’s law enforcement officers are steadily being equipped with body worn cameras and in-vehicle cameras with Automated Number Plate (ANPR) technology. This rollout is the first of its kind in South Africa and forms part of the City’s R860m safety technology investment over the next three years to make Cape Town safer.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis trialled the new body and in-vehicle camera technology during a demonstration. Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee member for Safety and Security, joined the mayor.
The City will equip 800 officers with bodycams and install 290 in-vehicle dashboard mounted cameras or ‘dashcams’ this financial year.
READ | CT’s JP Smith speaks out after ‘illegal’ Porsche event
“In the next couple of years, this technology will be standard across our safety services to make Cape Town safer,” Hill-Lewis said.
“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.”
The three-year investment
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.
The Mayor added: “The full rollout of an in-Vehicle Camera solution will now enable officers to record evidence of incidents as they happen, while also streaming live video to the control rooms for enhanced situational awareness of critical incidents.”
