CCTV Expansion In Phuket: Is It Warranted?

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OPINION:

CCTV Expansion in Phuket: Is it warranted?

CCTV is fashionable in police departments worldwide, but can it be made to work in Phuket?

PHUKET: On the face of it, the Phuket Provincial Administration Organization's (PPAO's) funding of 53 more closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at a cost of 17 million baht seems a wise use of taxpayer money, which could provide a needed boost in security, albeit initially to Phuket Town residents only.

Numbers alone justify the increased use of ever-improving CCTV technologies in the war against crime. Phuket has a regular police force of about 1,200 officers to provide security for a population generally believed to exceed one million during peak periods.

Although difficult to estimate, the police-to-population ratio could be less than 1:1,000 during the high season. Such a ratio might be appropriate in a Utopian society, but that description hardly fits a tourist destination in Thailand, as best evidenced by the recent series of violent confrontations between visitors and local people.

Indeed, Phuket's cosmopolitan make-up, huge population of indigenous migrants, and drastic disparities between haves and have-nots, conspire to make crime practically unavoidable. Given that the Royal Thai Police have no stated plans to increase the number of officers here, using CCTV and other effective crime-fighting technologies seems the most logical, if not the only, alternative.

This editorial writer may hold a minority view when it comes to the value of CCTV coverage. Preliminary results of a Gazette reader's poll on whether expansion of the system will make much of a difference reflect widespread pessimism in all three demographics: Thais, expats and tourists. (Click here to see a detailed breakdown and, if you wish, cast your vote.)

With 641 votes to date, the number of people who feel increased CCTV coverage won't make any difference (67.2%) is almost double the number who think it will (32.8%).

And the great majority of those in favor of the cameras think that expansion of their use should be occurring in Patong and Karon, where tuk-tuk drivers congregate, and not in Phuket Town, reflecting, yet again, the widely held belief that the island's transport syndicates – and the forces that enable their existence –are the biggest threat to tourism and the rule of law and order.

The effectiveness of CCTV surveillance is only as good as the people behind the monitors.

Given the extent to which police manpower is spread thin, the joint plan by the PPAO and Phuket Town police to use disabled people to monitor the screens makes perfect sense in principle. But, with no lifts in the Phuket Town police station, it is difficult to imagine how disabled people, particularly those in wheelchairs, would reach the fourth floor where the monitors are installed.

So, unfortunately, the project is unlikely to be of much use to those who might have benefited most from it.

-- Phuket Gazette 2010-01-10

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[Phil Conners]

We already have something like this in Pattaya. Go to City Hall, there is a room full of large monitors showing what's going on everywhere in Pattaya. The only problem is nobody is watching it, and reportedly the few times it has been called upon, for example hit and run traffic accidents it has proven to be 100% worthless.

[monty]

Ouch, that is over 300,000 Baht per camera.

If I recall correctly, the system in Pattaya has only 30% or so of the camera's operational!

[kylekarcrash]

London has more cameras than pretty much anywhere, and the crime is getting worse.

the only benefit is ya get to see more people getting mugged on telly.

[infernalman7]

If I remember it right Chiang Mai installed 300 cameras for only less than 10m baht. :S

[richieudon]

London has more cameras than pretty much anywhere, and the crime is getting worse.

the only benefit is ya get to see more people getting mugged on telly.

And get a nice £100 parking fine for sitting on a single yellow line with your engine running on a saturday afternooon, they're REALLY good for hitting motorists in the pocket!!

[cdnvic]

Lets stick to Phuket and leave London traffic out of it.

[chiang mai]

Any time funds get released for a major project it represents an opportunity for officials to skim 10/20% of the contract value up front - installing CCTV in cities and towns seems to be in vogue these days and when the basis for doing so is crime reduction, it's hard top see the money being refused. I predict that in five years time Thailand will have more CCTV camera's than the UK (current record holder for camera's per heads) and that less than 10% of them will function/be used as intended.

[jonclark]

I think CCTV would be a great idea in Phuket, providing it is placed in the right areas. Having never been to Phuket where these areas are I'm unsure, but from previous posts, it would seem that problems with Tuk-tuk drivers are very common, so maybe a few in the main areas where they hawk for business.

The footage would be invaluable in deciding who started the fracas, thinking of the recent Canadian incident. This is a good idea which would help make locals and tourists feel safer. Whether you like or loathe CCTV, it has proved its worth many times; providing the system is properly funded and staff correctly trained, not to fall asleep in front of the monitors.

[animatic]

Focus it on the tuk tuk lines and their areas for sure.

Lets not for get the monitors and multiplxers and especially lines for the signals

or transmission multiplexers if it wireless, and the lectric hook ups and other incidentals

like mounting hardware and protection etc. It all adds up, but if It gets a few scumbags off the streets,

then not so bad, and I assume I am being watched in many other places, so I no longer sweat it.

As long as divorce lawyers aren't trolling the Bangla road cameras looking for business I don't care.

Privacy is a long lost cause in the burgs anyway. But increased safety I still prefer on offer.

[Steps]

Privacy is a long lost cause in the burgs anyway. But increased safety I still prefer on offer.

It is attitudes like that, that has helped diminish citizens privacy in may countries, however much one longs for safety. We all want to be safe but a line must be drawn when it comes to privacy. While it is my opinion that there is a need for a select number of CCTV cameras strategically put in certain areas, i do feel that it is the wrong rout to take in bombarding the place with cameras. Once these cameras are installed, it only takes a tyrant in power to use them for the wrong reasons all in the name of "crime prevention & detection".

There is a lot more that can be done to decrease crime in Puket that is not being done. Many people have mentioned the Tuk Tuk clan as being a problem and many more people have put forward simple but logical solutions to solve these problems, without the use of CCTV.

A question i have to anyone in the know is:

Who is suppying and fitting the CCTV?

What country is the firm from? and

How breachable is the system?

We all know how much our own countries governments would love to be behind the controls!!

Edited January 10, 2010 by Steps

[seaeagle]

They'll be bought and installed from the perspective of 'price' only. Ability to function properly won't come into it!

All those installed at Chalong Circle are 'under-powered', as the magnification ain't strong enough to pick up facial details, number plates etc. All very convenient if you ask me - another excuse not to bother doing the job properly.

[animatic]

Public surveillance is a foregone conclusion, no matter how we complain about it.

Crime and terrorism have made this a fact of life to live with.

If you are doing nothing much wrong, Big Brother will not care.

Tyrants want power, but most care little for micro managment,

their egos only extend to large things.

Satalites can read your license plate, and Echalon can take your conversations and emails

and scan for for terrorist buzz words. If there is reason to track your movements

they can and will now. I won't spend my life worrying too hard about that.

[TAWP]

CCTV never have and never will prevent any crime.

And prevention is at the end of the day what the people want to see to feel safe.

[cdnvic]

CCTV never have and never will prevent any crime.

And prevention is at the end of the day what the people want to see to feel safe.

...and in a place where justice is notoriously for sale, cameras mean nothing.

[Felt 35]

Waist of money IMO

The only effective way to reduce criminality is more Police seen on the streets and hash punishment for offences.

[eTiMaGo]

let's be realistic here.... cameras obviously aimed in tuk-tuk areas = lots of vandalized cameras...