Cape Town spends R860 million on bodycams and other tech for police
Cape Town has become the first South African city to start a large-scale rollout of bodycams and dashcams for its law enforcement officers and their vehicles.
The initiative forms part of an R860 million safety technology investment in the city that will be implemented over three years.
Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said more than 800 metro police officers will get bodycams while over 300 vehicles will be fitted with dashcams in the current financial year.
In the next few years, the technology will become standard across the city’s law enforcement, metro police, and traffic services.
Hill-Lewis said the dashcams come fitted with Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology so that officers will instantly be alerted to wanted vehicles and outstanding warrants.
“These devices are used widely around the world and have shown tremendous success,” Hill-Lewis said.
“This is the first time they are being deployed at this scale for a government agency in South Africa.”
The city previously piloted the ANPR dashcams in its Highway Patrol Unit in 2022.
“Based on these learnings, we’re now rolling out cutting-edge in-vehicle cameras across our vehicles,” Hill-Lewis said.
Hill-Lewis and Cape Town mayoral committee member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith, provided a demonstration of the tech on Wednesday, 30 August 2023.
Today we take our next big step forward in technology to make Cape Town safer:
👮♂️ Body cameras for 800 officers, rest next year
🚔 Dash-cams for 300 vehicles, ANPR enabled, and more vehicles next year
📡 Live streaming always for digital evidence management
Results, soon! pic.twitter.com/mWm1cwONQo
— Geordin Hill-Lewis (@geordinhl) August 30, 2023
Smith said the city was impressed with the success of the ANPR pilot, which would enable officers to record evidence of incidents as they happen and live-stream video to control rooms for enhanced situational awareness of critical incidents.
“Digital evidence is vital in the prosecution of offenders, and we are expecting the body-worn cameras on officers to provide crucial footage that can be used in court, ensuring a higher rate of successful convictions,” Smith said.
Smith added that Cape Town had received expertise from various international experts to learn best practices in using the tech.
“The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Thames Valley Police, the Bavarian Police, Fairfax County Police, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department have all provided expertise to assist the City,” said Smith.
City of Cape Town mayor committee member of safety, Alderman JP Smith (second to left), and City of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis
Hill-Lewis also said the tech would increase trust and accountability in the municipal police and law enforcement because interactions with the public will always be recorded.
“We want Cape Town’s safety services to be trusted by the public, even while trust in other law enforcement agencies is declining,” Hill-Lewis said.
“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 R860 million investment includes the following items:
-
R118.4 million on CCTV
-
R118 million on dash- and bodycams
-
R109 million for Aerial surveillance
-
R22 million on drones
-
R10 million on gunshot location tech
-
R442 million on Licence Plate Recognition, EPIC digital coordination, radios, comms systems, IT and network upgrades
Several other major metros — including the City of Joburg and City of Tshwane — have previously punted the use of bodycams to monitor officer performance and enhance crime-fighting capabilities.
However, no other local authority had yet implemented the technology.
Most recently, Tshwane said it was considering rolling out bodycams to assist in dealing with corrupt officers.
In the last financial year alone, the city’s metro police department had received 255 complaints alleging intimidation, robbery, corruption, extortion, and even kidnapping by officers.
Loading ...