The City’s investment in its CCTV footprint is well documented, and this investment continues, guided by the CCTV Rollout Plan.
Just over R48 million has been earmarked for additional and replacement CCTV cameras around the city in the new financial year, as well as the gunshot detection technology.
The Rollout Plan advises on priority areas for CCTV installations, engagement with key stakeholders like the South African Police Service, businesses and NPOs, guidelines for the usage of data in determining CCTV locations, partnerships with private CCTV owners and a standard operating procedure for infrastructure installation.
Other technological advancements over the past decade have included: The introduction of hand-held digital devices, linked to the Emergency Policing Incident Control (EPIC) system, that has fast-tracked the logging of incidents, issuing of fines and allows for photographic evidence to be uploaded; the use of gunshot detection technology; and the introduction of dashboard-mounted ANPR devices in enforcement vehicles.
These devices, fitted with Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) software, have proven invaluable, particularly to the Traffic Service’s Highway Patrol Unit that was launched in November 2022.
With the 2023/24 budget allocation, the Directorate plans to procure more advanced dashboard cameras with ANPR functionality, and introduce body cameras. With the proposed budget for the 2023/24 financial year, it is envisioned that the Directorate will procure 400 body cams, 50 dash-cams, 10 fixed cameras and 20 mobile cameras.
In terms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), the Directorate is using a transversal City tender to deploy drones during enforcement and emergency operations, while it completes the process of acquiring its remote operating certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Over the longer term, the vision is to establish an Aviation Unit within Safety and Security.
