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Video Surveillance:

A dire need for the unsafe streets of Colombo

by Ranga Kamaladasa

From the very carefully planned car thefts which are being sold in the north and east, to the very commonplace street muggers that assault and run away with the victim's belongings, the city limits of Colombo for the time being has been infested with organized crime lords as well as common thugs and thieves.

For the Police, enforcing the law and patrolling every inch and square of the city limits throughout the whole day is not practical. For that reason a security surveillance project costing Rs. 200 million has been approved by the Ministry of Defence, where 100 cameras are to be placed in fixed strategic locations within the city of Colombo.

The exact locations were not disclosed due to several reasons of concern, but the use of mobile vehicles is also to be put into service and will be coordinated to a Central Control Room via a 3G Mobile Service Provider.

In a telephone interview with the Sunday Observer DIG Gamini Nawarathna said that the project is still in procurement level, and cannot be said when it will come into action. But, tenders for the cameras have already been called and most probably within this year or the next, the project will come into execution.

The project compromises of a Closed Circuit Television Surveillance System which can be extended further into a complete automated security network, if the government wants to. The consultation, project planning, design and implementation are done by the Engineering Design Centre of the University of Moratuwa and the technical advisory role is played by the Electronics and Telecommunication Department of the University.

"Once this is implemented, the city of Colombo will be a much safer place to live in," says Eng. B.S. Samarasiri, the Head of the Engineering Design Centre. "Safer in the sense that, a system will be implemented to counter robberies and maybe even acts of terrorism."

The cameras which are to be connected within this year will be able to rotate and tilt and be controlled at will from a remote location. The cameras themselves will have an intelligent fool-proof system so they can not be disarmed or ransacked in anyway. The cameras having variable focal lenses and night sense capability will be equipped with PTZ heads and mounted on poles with suitable heights.

The most intriguing fact about the system will be it's capability to implement automatic facial recognition schemes and automatic number plate recognition schemes. The facial recognition software will enable the cameras to scan and track down any given facial data to pinpoint a wanted person.

As Eng. Samarasiri points out, when placed strategically through the city limits, the automatic number plate recognition software will be able to single out whether a stolen car has left the city limits of Colombo or if it's still inside.

"Changing of course takes time," adds Eng. Samarasiri. "Some people are used to the old systems they don't want to change.

"One problem is the police forces today are usually conventional and are not in touch with the advance technology. They're not used to it. As the thieves and terrorists get high tech, the law enforcement agencies should also keep in touch, and be a step ahead in the current technological advancements.

"But, with all the technological advancements, the main bottleneck of the project has also been the lack of a feasible communication system. The connection from the cameras will be a Virtual Private Network (VPN) from Sri Lanka Telecom and the connection between SLT and Sri Lanka Police will be through a direct optical fiber link.

The bandwidth required is 256 Kbps per one camera. The bottleneck arises when transferring data with huge amounts of cameras. The optical fiber is quick enough, but the Virtual Private Network cannot accommodate the same amount of cameras.

As Commodore Aththanayaka of the Engineering Design Centre points out, this is also a reason why cities outside Colombo cannot be employed with the surveillance network at the first installment. The Sri Lanka Police have shown interest in creating a high speed network for themselves in the future, focusing on the security issues that might arise due to third party involvement, even though it's encrypted and very much secure.

With the issue of transmission security, the other major issue is of the privacy of individuals. "Privacy is an issue, but for that Laws must come up and Parliament Acts must be made. That's one of the legal issues we will have to deal with in the future." concludes Eng. Samarasiri.

But in developed countries CCTV surveillance of public areas, housing complexes, car parks, city traffic and public facilities are well exploited. In Great Britain alone, over four million cameras (one for every 14 people) are used. Neighbouring countries like Thailand and Taiwan, have already taken the first steps to implement it.

The question is, when and how long will it take for Sri Lanka to put into operation a secure and efficient system to monitor and watch over the unsafe streets of Colombo.

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