02 Jun 2019

The city of Francistown will soon have surveillance cameras at crime hotspot areas.

Addressing the Francistown full council meeting recently, project implementation chairperson, Botswana Police Service’s Senior Assistant Commissioner Goboletswe Dimeku said the police was implementing the project in collaboration with Chinese Technology Company called Huawei.

Mr Dimeku noted that the project was intended to prevent, deter and reduce crime in the city but not to infringe into people’s lives.

He said the high-resolution cameras would also assist the police find evidence, crime detection and recovery of goods, adding that such cameras could be usedto identify criminals.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Dimeku said in-terms of reducing crime in the city, this would boost investor’s confidence to invest in the city thus increasing employment opportunities.

He stated that Kutlwano police station would host the command and control centre mission of the project adding that all traffic lights around the city would be installed with equipment, which would be using fibre cable network, both electricity and solar power to avoid interruptions during load shading.

Councillors were told that the cameras had analysis and could cover or protect themselves with an alarm that could be set to inform the control room should they sense an intruder around them.

For their part, councillors advised that the cameras should not be used to spy on a politicians, impede or people’s lives saying they should focus only on the intended plan of identifying criminal activities within the city.

They urged the police service to hire people who would maintain and service the cameras to avoid turning them into white elephants.

They also called on public education on the use and importance of the cameras. ENDS