Hong Kong police will install 15 sets of security cameras in Mong Kok next month, as part of a trial run for a new surveillance programme targeting crime blackspots in the city.
The devices to be installed in the commercial district in Kowloon will be used for testing the technicality of the police plan of setting up 2,000 new security cameras across the city for crime detection and prevention, the Security Bureau wrote in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council (LegCo) on Wednesday.
Police identified various districts with high crime figures and high pedestrian flows and decided to install security cameras at 615 locations, including government buildings and lampposts. Following the test run next month, the police will begin installing the remaining 600 sets of devices in mid-2024, the LegCo document submitted to the Panel on Security read.
The security cameras would be operated under the city’s privacy laws and the footage would be deleted automatically after 30 days from the date of recording, the bureau said. But if the footage was useful for criminal investigation, the law enforcement officers may duplicate the footage in accordance with police internal procedures and guidelines on the proper preservation and handling of video recordings.
Face recognition
Earlier this month, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu cited surveillance measures around the world and said installing 2,000 security cameras in Hong Kong was “really relatively not enough.” He also did not rule out the possibility that the city’s CCTV cameras would be equipped with face recognition functions.
The LegCo paper on published on Wednesday did not mention whether the CCTV cameras to be installed in Mong Kok will have face recognition functions. But the authorities would actively study ways to use technology effectively to “maximise the public interest,” the bureau said.
“To further enhance the effectiveness of crime prevention and detection, HKPF is studying the feasibility of equipping the CCTV system with artificial intelligence technology to facilitate law enforcement,” the paper read.
HKFP has reached out to the police to clarify whether the artificial intelligence technology mentioned in the LegCo document included face recognition.
The government had cited security reasons in refusing a lawmaker’s request for details relating to CCTV cameras. Disclosing such information might unveil the government’s security arrangements and the investigatory techniques of law enforcement agencies to criminals, the government said.
Hong Kong logged over 90,000 reported crime cases in 2023 – a 28.9 per cent increase from a year earlier. The rise was led by a surge in fraud-related offences and violent crime, including robbery and rape, according to police data released on Tuesday.
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