Vinh City Police Solve Many Crimes Thanks to Community Security Cameras

Solving crimes thanks to security cameras

Since 2017, when the security camera system was deployed in 25/25 wards and communes of Vinh City, it has been effective in preventing, detecting and handling violations of the law. Major Dinh Viet Bao - Captain of the Team for Building the National Security Protection Movement (Vinh City Police) said: This system has supported the police force in solving dozens of cases occurring in Vinh City.

Security cameras are installed on Bui Duong Lich Street, Quan Bau Ward, Vinh City. Photo: Hoai Thu

For example, on September 12, 2019, through data extracted from cameras, Vinh City Police arrested 3 subjects who used knives to slash Mr. Nguyen Hong Quan in Yen Due block, Dong Vinh ward, which occurred on September 4, 2019 in Le Loi ward. The perpetrators were Nguyen Hoang Quan residing in Quan Bau ward, Nguyen Trung Kien residing in Trung Do ward and Le Duc Anh residing in Vinh Tan ward.

Or the case that occurred in Block 6B, Cua Nam Ward on March 23, 2018, a subject used a brick or stone to hit Mr. Hoang Van Than (residing in Tan Ky district) in the head, robbing 70,000 VND. Immediately after that, the police extracted community security cameras to investigate, identifying the perpetrator as Nguyen Dinh Luc, residing in Cam Xuyen, Ha Tinh.

Also thanks to the pre-installed camera system, in September 2018, at the volleyball court of the 10th grade cultural house in Ben Thuy ward, an incident occurred in which Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Cuong was shot by two subjects with a homemade gun and robbed of his property. Immediately after that, through data extracted from the camera, the police force quickly arrested the two perpetrators, Pham Van Thien and Nguyen Cong Luu, both residing in Phuc Tho commune (Nghi Loc)..

Chart of the number of cases handled by Vinh City Police through community security camera extraction from 2018 - 2019. Graphics: Hoai Thu

It can be seen that in the wards and communes in Vinh City, thanks to the community camera system, it has contributed to creating awareness for people in obeying the law, maintaining security and order; helping the authorities detect and handle many cases and many criminals. From the data and images collected through the "Security Camera" system, it helps the investigation agency promptly detect, arrest and handle all kinds of crimes, including many criminal cases such as robbery, theft of property, murder, disturbing public order... In addition to crime prevention, the camera system also helps protect the interests and legitimate rights of collectives and individuals and has the value of restraining people's behavior in complying with urban order, environmental sanitation, detecting and handling violators correctly.

Shortcomings that need to be overcome

Besides the positive aspects, after more than 2 years of operating the community security camera system in wards and communes, it has begun to reveal shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome. Meeting Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc at the gate of the Quan Bau Ward Police Station (Vinh City) to propose the adjustment of the surveillance camera system in the area.

Ms. Ngoc added: In Block 1 where she lives, security cameras are installed in residential groups connected to the household internet system. Therefore, when a household's network has problems, it also means that the security camera also stops working. Ms. Ngoc saw that this phenomenon had been happening for quite a while without seeing the block officials or the police force fix or fix it, so she went directly to the ward police to report it.

Quan Bau Ward Police met with residents and block officials to discuss security and order maintenance. Photo: Hoai Thu

Discussing this issue with the leader of Quan Bau ward police, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Quang said that currently, the government and the ward police are coordinating to repair the surveillance camera system with more than 100 "eyes" installed in 11 blocks and hamlets. However, the biggest problem is the need to invest in servers with a budget of tens of millions of VND and how to operate stably, providing quality internet services. Currently, Quan Bau ward has not been able to disburse money for camera repairs because at the beginning of the year it was put into the treasury and has not been settled.

Not only in Quan Bau ward, we also recorded similar reflections in Vinh Tan and Trung Do wards. For example, in Vinh Tan ward, the ward leader said that previously, the cameras were not installed synchronously at once, but were installed by residential clusters, blocks, and groups of blocks depending on the time of completion of mobilization, contribution and connection support from the government.

Vinh Tan Ward Police inspect the server operating the community security camera system. Photo: Hoai Thu

So some places install them at the beginning of the year, while others install them near the end of the year. And when installing cameras, people agree to share their family's wifi network. After a while, many households' wifi networks malfunction or become overloaded, so the cameras stop working or cannot save data.

In addition, each location when installing cameras and connecting to the internet has a contract with a different network operator, so repairs are often delayed. In addition, there is also a situation of data overload due to the storage capacity of the cameras as well as the server system, causing the captured images to be of poor quality, or not stored. Therefore, in 2018, after more than 1 year of implementation, installing 40 cameras throughout the area, Vinh Tan ward is currently temporarily stopping new installations. Waiting for the problem to be resolved before continuing.

A corner of Vinh Tan ward (Vinh city). Photo courtesy of Lam Tung

Most of these camera systems are effective, but after more than 2 years of operation, they have encountered the shortcomings mentioned above. The local police force is actively coordinating with the government to guide people to overcome this problem soon, to continue to promote the effectiveness of the security camera system in crime prevention, maintaining security, order and peace in the blocks.

According to Major Dinh Viet Bao - Captain of the Team for Building the National Security Protection Movement (Vinh City Police), the security camera system is mainly installed thanks to voluntary contributions from the people.

To date, 25/25 wards and communes have mobilized people to install more than 1,500 cameras and install a command center system to collect, process images, and store data at 16 ward police stations and 9 commune police departments with a budget of more than 5 billion VND. In addition, schools, residential blocks, agencies, units and individuals in the area have also actively responded and installed more than 2,000 cameras combined with the common system of the ward and commune.