3 lakh cameras to make Capital safer but privacy major concern
SURVEILLANCE Experts say devices integral to curbing crime against women but agencies need to be careful in choosing locations and camera angles
The cameras act only as postmortem devices instead of preventive ones... these cameras will be redundant by the time they are installed as they have no crime prediction feature. SANTANU CHAUDHURY, director, CEERI
NEWDELHI: Delhi will have around three lakh new closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras by the end of this year, all of which will cost about ₹1,200 crore to the exchequer.
Promised by the Aam Aadmi Party during the 2015 assembly elections, the Delhi government said the CCTV cameras will ensure public safety in a city, which has already recorded 4,081 crimes against women until April this year. The project involves installing cameras in residential, market and public areas apart from state-run schools.
Maintaining that CCTV cameras are integral to a basic surveillance system, experts, however, said that agencies need to put a lot of thought behind locations and the angle of installation.
“The orientation of cameras should be such that the field of vision is only a public area, and not, say, someone’s bedroom,” said Rahul Matthan, an expert in privacy laws who works as a partner at law firm Trilegal.
Matthan gave the example of London, which is the most spied/ watched city in the world with about five lakh CCTV cameras, and said that privacy should not be a worry if the rules are followed.
“Even if the control of the live footage is given to individuals other than the police or the government, the issue of privacy does not arise, till the time only public areas are under surveillance. It is similar to someone simply taking out a camera and taking a video on a street,” he said.
In a set of procedures prepared by it, the government plans to give rights of viewing the live footage to two representatives of residential and market associations, apart from the police and government agencies.
Some raised doubts if the devices to be installed will actually act as a deterrent to crimes.
“The cameras, including the existing ones in the city, act only as post-mortem devices instead of preventive ones. At a time when artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in city surveillance systems, these cameras will be redundant by the time they are installed as they have no crime prediction feature,” said Santanu Chaudhury, director, Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) and department of electrical engineering at IIT Delhi.
He said having merely a video recording without back-end integration to a cloud-based server won’t help much even in solving crime cases. “The city of Guiyang in China, for example, has an AI based camera surveillance system, which includes face recognition. It has the capability to raise an alarm automatically at the police control room,” Chaudhury said.
The AAP government’s project will be in addition to the 5,000 others installed by the Delhi police in crime-prone areas, about 1,200 set up by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and countless others put up privately, about which neither the government nor the police has any record.
To stop agencies from planning such surveillance systems in silos and ensuring that privacy of people is not infringed upon, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, earlier this month, directed to lay down a set of common guidelines for execution and operation of such projects.
The Delhi government, however, has opposed the move alleging that it is “politically motivated” for causing “unnecessary delays” in the project, which was AAP’S key poll promise in the cameras to be installed across the city
Areas where these cameras will be installed
Gates of residential colonies PWD roads
Markets in and around residential areas
Parks, parking spaces Community spaces/ halls cameras to be installed in 1,028 state-owned schools 5 years maintenance cost maintenance cost
Areas where these cameras will be installed
Entry/exit gates Playgrounds, corridors Classrooms, assembly space Staff room, library, labs Admin office(s)
have installed cameras in 5,000+ crime-prone areas
More (in lakhs) are in process under the police’s proposed ₹1,000 crore Intelligent Traffic Management System 2015 elections.
“While cities across the world have standard operating procedures for surveillance systems, Delhi still lacks one. Not having a policy guiding such devices and regulating its data is unfair to the public. This in itself is a major privacy flaw as there is no accountability if someone today misuses a video footage captured by a camera in a public space,” said Maxwell Pereira, former joint commissioner of Delhi Police.
A study titled ‘Security and Social Dimensions of City Surveillance Policy’ done by Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 for the city of Pittsburgh in Pennsyl- crore total cost
Type of CCTV camera that will be installed
Wired CCTV system with decentralised recording Wi-fi, GSM network with health check system
Hard disk will store HD footage for 30 days crore total cost capital cost capital cost
Type of CCTV camera that will be installed
2,386 pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras
1.44 lakh bullet/dome cameras already has CCTV cameras
Number of cams: 1,200 Installed using fund of area MLA Arvind Kejriwal: ₹1.56 crore Most not working as RWAS have been unable to maintain
vania highlighted how having a ‘Code of Ordinances’ on privacy helped the local administration address community concerns as well.
The code regulates the distribution, control and transparency of public security camera systems exclusively monitoring public spaces. “To protect the privacy rights of the community, the code provides for a Public Safety Camera Review Committee comprised of government officials and supplemented by community members selected by the mayor. Additionally, public cameras must be clearly marked for areas under surveillance,” the rules state.
While people do not have access to the data, if any government agency, other than the city’s Department of Public Safety, requests for footage as part of a criminal investigation, it needs to submit a precise listing for approval.
A section of experts questioned the need for over three lakh CCTV cameras in a city which is spread only over 1,484 square kilometres.
“We are not against cameras. But agencies should look for other ways of ensuring safety too. After all, it is the taxpayers’ money. Urban designing of public spaces by making them more open and lit is one solution. Bringing more eyes on the street by engaging hawkers in deserted areas could be another,” said Kalpana Viswanath of Safetipin, an NGO that works on safety in urban cities.
Hoping increased engagement between the Delhi police and the state government, she said with the projects reaching the stage of execution, now the ball is in their court to ensure a “world class” surveillance system for the national Capital.
We are not against cameras. But agencies should look for other ways of ensuring safety too.
KALPANA VISWANATH, Safetipin, an NGO