The installation of five cameras in Ocean View and refurbishment of a local control room will be a useful tool in the crime-fighting efforts of community structures and the uniformed enforcement services.
The City of Cape Town has put the finishing touches to its first CCTV camera installation in the ‘deep south’.
For years, areas like Ocean View, Fish Hoek, Masiphumelele and Simons Town remained without a CCTV presence because Ou Kaapse Weg blocked the relaying of a signal to the Metro Police Strategic Surveillance Unit’s control centres on the other side of the peninsula.
As a workaround, the SSU decided to establish a local CCTV control centre from where cameras could be monitored and responses dispatched if need be.
In March 2019, the installation of five cameras commenced in Ocean View, following consultation with the local South African Police Service branch on the preferred locations. The installations were completed at a cost of R900 000.
A few months later, Neighbourhood Watch members received training that allows them to monitor camera feeds from the control room, and, following the refurbishment of the facility, they are now able to expand their patrol footprint with some technological assistance.
Currently, the control centre is not manned 24-hours a day, but plans are in the pipeline to train Law Enforcement Auxiliary members to assist with monitoring, and help advance a ‘round the clock’ presence. There are also plans to install two more cameras in Ocean View.
‘This is a starting point and for the moment, will make the job of the neighbourhood watch easier, but also the City’s enforcement agencies when conducting patrols in Ocean View. The cameras are always recording, so if a crime happens and is picked up, SAPS will be able to access the footage for purposes of investigations.”
‘Going forward, there is also scope to start installing cameras in other areas in the south, and either relay the images to this control centre or their own localised centres until such time as technology allows us to relay directly to the existing Metro Police surveillance centres or we have the funding to build a fully-fledged surveillance centre in this neck of the woods,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
Since November 2019, a number of incidents have been detected and a response activated, including: trespassing, drug dealing, robbery, a shooting incident and the setting alight of rubble.
Two detectives have also visited the control centre for footage relating to investigations into cases of murder and attempted murder.
