Surveillance cameras are an integral part of crimes investigations. But except for those in Gulshan area of Dhaka, most CCTV cameras do not function properly while others stop working during blackouts.
A Dhaka Metropolitan Police source said footage from these cameras were unclear and that there was no back-up system to keep them rolling during power cuts.
The DMP installed about 155 CCTV cameras at 59 key points five years ago, but many of them have remained dysfunctional for years. Most of the 94 cameras installed at 12 entry and exit points of Dhaka are also out of service.
A police officer said installing the 155 cameras initially cost the government Tk270 million but later the cost shot up to Tk410m. Then another Tk200m was spent on setting up a control room, pushing up the total cost to a staggering Tk614.1m.
But the project is yet to take off as the police have not taken over the charge of operation from the contractor.
Apart from these, around 1,000 CCTV cameras were installed with the help of locals. These are controlled and maintained by the local police stations but more than half of them are out of order.
Dhaka University’s criminology department teacher Syed Mahfujul Haque Marjan noted that the law enforcement agencies had managed to identify criminals from CCTV footage despite setbacks.
Killers of Italian national Cesare Tavella, Jubo League leader Reazul Haque Milki, rapists of a Garo girl, and arsonists, among others, were identified using surveillance footage. The police recently managed to identify and arrest one of the accused of last year’s much-talked-about Pohela Boishakh sexual assaults on the Dhaka University campus.
A DMP source said the cameras went blank during power cuts as there were no back-up systems. However, newly-installed cameras at Gulshan can record footage for over an hour after a blackout. But lack of back-up is not the only problem. The cameras were installed with four networking devices. As a result, when one camera shuts down, several others also go silent.
A police control room on the Abdul Gani Road monitors the cameras. A DMP official said they had surveillance cameras at Gulshan, Uttara and Mirpur. Power cuts, snapped optical fibre connections and camera lens malfunctioning, among others, dogged operations. Police officials said it was not possible to keep all the cameras in operation at the same time.
Officer-in-Charge of Darus Salam police station Selimozzaman said the CCTV cameras installed on the Mirpur bridge were not out of service but being repaired. “They will be back in operation soon,” he said, adding that there was no power back-up for these cameras.
Several police sources told the Dhaka Tribune that they considered their Gulshan project a success and said they planned to install similar cameras in other parts of Dhaka with back-up facilities.
Shoeb Reaz Alam, assistant inspector general (AIG) of police (estate) at the Police Headquarters, said they had taken up a new project to modernise Dhaka’s traffic and security systems. Currently, the feasibility work is going on.
AIG (development) Gazi Mozammel Haque said they would bring the whole city under CCTV camera surveillance. But he did not specify when the project would kick off or how it would be implemented. “I hope soon,” he said in response to a query. “But a lot of work needs to be done and so, it may take time.”
DU teacher Marjan told the Dhaka Tribune: “Crime rate will drop sharply if the whole city is brought under CCTV surveillance. Identifying criminals will also become much easier.”
