LOCAL authorities are to place 53 security cameras around Phuket City at a cost of almost 17 million baht, Orborjor Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation CEO Paiboon Upatising announced this week.
Installation has begun and will be complete by January 15.
Places where cameras are to go up include Saphan Hin public park (11) Suan Luang park (12) the bus station (5) the public auditorium in Phuket Road (3) with more spread among various intersections through Phuket City.
The cameras will all be capable of being viewed from Phuket City police headquarters and should help with traffic management on a daily basis.
Khun Paiboon said the cameras would all be capable of turning 360 degrees, with the capacity to zoom x35. They would be waterproof and sun-protected, and guaranteed for 12 months.
The images will be as sharp as DVD quality and recorded events will be saved for 24 hours.
Security camera are thought to have made many cities safer around the world. Burglars, bank robbers and muggers no longer have it quite so easy.
Recently Phuketwan reported that cameras in an apartment block in Phuket City proved conclusively that a man held a knife to the throats of two tourists in an elevator and wielded the weapon as he and two friends attempted to kick in several apartment doors.
The accused man, apprehended by police, at first denied having a knife. he did not realise cameras had recorded his movements.
That case, incidentally, has been settled out of court with the family of the accused paying 50,000 baht to the expat who was the innocent target of the attack.
The thoughts of the tourists in the elevator, who were on their way to the airport at the conclusion of their holiday, may never be known.
Alleged beer mat bandit Annice Smoel was also said to have been caught on a security camera in Patong's Aussie Bar, but the images had been erased before police could check.
While the security camera has its place in crime prevention and detection, its use is not considered to be as effective as police officers in numbers.
But it could be that camera monitoring of more Phuket intersections could free up more officers on the island for active duties of other kinds.
While we have no doubt that the Orborjor is installing quality cameras, dud cameras have been put up in the past on Phuket as part of a corruption scam.
The scam involves someone in authority taking a large slice from the inflated price for approving the contract, then substituting dud cameras for good ones to cream even more from the deal.
The scam is eventually revealed when the cameras fail to work properly. Those kinds of scams are hard to catch on security cameras, though.
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Installation has begun and will be complete by January 15.
Places where cameras are to go up include Saphan Hin public park (11) Suan Luang park (12) the bus station (5) the public auditorium in Phuket Road (3) with more spread among various intersections through Phuket City.
The cameras will all be capable of being viewed from Phuket City police headquarters and should help with traffic management on a daily basis.
Khun Paiboon said the cameras would all be capable of turning 360 degrees, with the capacity to zoom x35. They would be waterproof and sun-protected, and guaranteed for 12 months.
The images will be as sharp as DVD quality and recorded events will be saved for 24 hours.
Security camera are thought to have made many cities safer around the world. Burglars, bank robbers and muggers no longer have it quite so easy.
Recently Phuketwan reported that cameras in an apartment block in Phuket City proved conclusively that a man held a knife to the throats of two tourists in an elevator and wielded the weapon as he and two friends attempted to kick in several apartment doors.
The accused man, apprehended by police, at first denied having a knife. he did not realise cameras had recorded his movements.
That case, incidentally, has been settled out of court with the family of the accused paying 50,000 baht to the expat who was the innocent target of the attack.
The thoughts of the tourists in the elevator, who were on their way to the airport at the conclusion of their holiday, may never be known.
Alleged beer mat bandit Annice Smoel was also said to have been caught on a security camera in Patong's Aussie Bar, but the images had been erased before police could check.
While the security camera has its place in crime prevention and detection, its use is not considered to be as effective as police officers in numbers.
But it could be that camera monitoring of more Phuket intersections could free up more officers on the island for active duties of other kinds.
While we have no doubt that the Orborjor is installing quality cameras, dud cameras have been put up in the past on Phuket as part of a corruption scam.
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Thank you for the follow up about the elevator incident and the warning that this criminal is still on the loose!
Great justice system we have here.
Although probably one of the only times the Thai had to pay the farang. Pity he did not press charges instead for the good of all Phuket.
24 hours really does not seem like a long time to keep the footage.
Would he have had to stay on the island even if the thug was already on camera?
Cameras are great! A friend of mine had his vehicle stolen from his house in an estate while he was sleeping at around 2 am.
Guys came in and took the keys (this was in Rawai). Police said it was the second Toyota from Rawai that week.
The cameras even had footage of it about an hour later being drive off the island.
Posted by VFaye on September 19, 2009 16:45