Hong Kong to install thousands of AI-equipped cameras

International

ALREADY considered as one of the safest places in the world, Hong Kong is not taking any chances as it aims to install thousands of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the city’s busy streets.

The Hong Kong police aim to improve and elevate its surveillance against crime by adding more to its over 54, 000 public CCTV cameras.

The police force targets to install 2, 000 new CCTVs this year and more to put up in the subsequent years in Asia’s global business hub.

In April, 15 sets of new CCTV cameras were installed in Mong Kok.

These CCTVs that the Hong Kong police are planning to install are equipped with facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools, which is why they are currently studying how other countries use AI CCTV systems.

Local newspaper Sing Tao Daily reported that Security Chief Chris Tang mirrors the wide use of surveillance cameras for law enforcement in the United Kingdom and Singapore with seven million and 90, 000 cameras respectively.

He said the use of AI in the CCTVS would “significantly raise the effectiveness of police’s law enforcement.”

Among the uses of this kind of surveillance camera are access control or face recognition, perimeter detection, people count, parking detection, behavior analysis, and others.

The intent of the police force poses a concern to some experts who say that it draws closer to China.

Samantha Hoffman, a nonresident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research said, there’s a difference in how the technology is being used — referring to how other countries use CCTVs specifically with the system in government.

In China, Hoffman said, the use of surveillance cameras “tend to track lists of particular people, maybe people with a history of mental illness or participation in protests, and make a note of people who are marked as being troublesome in some way.”

Hoffman studied the use of technology for security and propaganda in China, as per CNN.

In defense, the police force said the cameras will just help them fight against crime, and that it would only monitor public places and delete footage after 31 days.

It furthered that the use of AI-equipped CCTVs will comply with the relevant laws, like the personal data and privacy laws and others.(LAO)