PM Yingluck announces plan to link up all surveillance cameras

[webfact]

PM announces plan to link up all surveillance cameras
Jeerapong Prasertpolkrung
The Nation


Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra speaks after watching a presentation on a centralised closed-circuit television system at the Foreign Ministry yesterday.

BANGKOK: -- Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is moving to reduce redundant purchases of surveillance cameras nationwide by setting up a national centre that can link all airports, tourism destinations, the restive South and border provinces.

"On the border provinces, we can prevent the smuggling of contraband, drugs and illegal migrants,'' she said yesterday.

She was inspecting the closed-circuit television system of the centre, which will integrate security networks across the country.

State agencies have their own cameras and some are installed in places already monitored by another agency, which is wasteful. If the agencies can share cameras, the country can save money and more cameras can be deployed to other critical or risky areas such as tourism-oriented cities and border provinces, including those in the deep South, said the PM, who is also defence minister.

The centre can tap the maps and information system of the National Police, so local and foreign tourists can feel safer, as the software can help analyse and prevent problems.

Implementation has started and will be extended to more ministries, she said.

Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said he would meet with the Tourism Ministry and Airports of Thailand to cooperate on the project.

"Once tourists touch down, they will be given high security.

"For Thais, housing estates that are suffering from rampant burglaries can connect their monitoring system with that of police,'' he said.

Yingluck also gave instructions for the centre to be used in the rice pledging scheme to catch corruption.

"This can help clear claims that rice is being transferred during the pledging period,'' he said.


-- The Nation 2013-08-29

[BeforeTigers]

Well, if you're going to run a police state you might as well be efficient about it, I suppose.

Meanwhile, you can't even trust the water from of the tap.
Interesting priorities.

[yooper2001]

They would be far better off if they install cameras at traffic intersections and on the freeways to capture the offenders who pass red lights and capture speeding vans who kill many people every year

Edited August 29, 2013 by metisdead
Underscore removed.

[NongKhaiKid]

Be careful Thailand, PTP big brother is watching you, reading your social media posts and no doubt listening in too.

I'd like to think surveillance is carried out for good reason such as crime suppression but with this government there's always a major doubt.

[Gsxrnz]

They should try and organise a piss up in a brewery first.

[Songhua]

They would be far better off if they install cameras at traffic intersections and on the freeways to capture the offenders who pass red lights and capture speeding vans who kill many people every year

And the offenders who take your money even when you do it right.

Two birds with one stone - identify crime and make that start on corruption we keep hearing about.

[Pimay1]

"Once tourists touch down, they will be given high security.

Boy do I feel better now. I expect this will be another B500m project. After all you can get only 200 clocks for B16m.

[johnnie20110]

They should try and organise a piss up in a brewery first.

Agreed.

It's evidenced by the very odd choice of the Foreign Minister Surapong taking on the task of coordinating domestic security systems.

[zydeco]

Nothing much will come of it, I don't think. The hamsters watching the screens will spend most of their time at lunch, on break, or reading FB.

[Nooky2]

"Once tourists touch down, they will be given high security.

Boy do I feel better now. I expect this will be another B500m project. After all you can get only 200 clocks for B16m.

Yes, more rhetoric to sell tourist on false security.

[A1Str8]

That's actually a useful idea. You go girl, follow your brother's instructions.

Sent from one of my devices using the internet

[Valentine]

If it used fairly & not conveniently out of operation when some hiso drags a policeman under his car (for example) then it can be a useful tool in fighting crime but I am quite shocked that some humungous budget for this project was not announced at the same time.

[SoFarAndNear]

Does these cameras reduce crime? It will only helps to arrest the stupid criminals which would have caught anyway because of stupidness and filling up the +200% overfilled jails in Thailand.

I only see a future where these full surveillance will be used to control the people of the whole country.

[Nickymaster]

Well, if you're going to run a police state you might as well be efficient about it, I suppose.

Meanwhile, you can't even trust the water from of the tap.

Interesting priorities.

Even the foreign minister is assigned to help creating a police state. They must be in a hurry.

[trainman34014]

If they need experts to help them they should call in the Brit's who have more camera's per capita than anywhere else on the Planet. Can't have a dump in Blighty without somebody watching to see the colour of your shreddies !

[Rorri]

Technically it can be done but not by Thais, they simply do not have the technical ability to install then maintain such a system.... practically it is impossible. How do you monitor every camera (think about the numbers involved), at the same time, you couldn't even monitor every camera at Suvarnabhumi airport,24/7, never mind the entire nation. Brainless twaddle.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Rorri

[rogerdee123]

Why not give every security cam a public web address so the public can see for themselves what's going on ....

[worgeordie]

And have one man watching the lot !

regards Worgeordie

[slapout]

The survellance camera systems that are in service have been shown to be overpriced, destroyed by vandals, many have no working internal system, not maintianed, used at police whim, etc .Since the camera system have been adopted, no one has shown that the crime rate has decreased, and the photos of the accused bad guys seem to be provided by the camers installed by the private sector in their place of business.

The proposal should be looked at from the stand point of the two individuals who are mentioned as making same.They are just setting up another family/cronie buffet, which will be at the expense of the present and future taxpayer

[Rorri]

Why not give every security cam a public web address so the public can see for themselves what's going on ....

lol..because then every crim, in the world can watch every target they want, case the place, know when cops are close by... etc etc etc...do you actually THINK before posting a comment? On top of that, not ALL cameras are IP cameras, so to give them an IP address would mean a convertor would be necessary along with a very large (bandwidth) internet connection needed, this would possibly use ALL of Thailand's available internet bandwidth.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Rorri

[Nickymaster]

Why not give every security cam a public web address so the public can see for themselves what's going on ....

lol..because then every crim, in the world can watch every target they want, case the place, know when cops are close by... etc etc etc...do you actually THINK before posting a comment?

He might have been joking...

Edited August 29, 2013 by Nickymaster

[gemini81]

They'll be linked up so that it is easier to destroy damning evidence faster and more efficiently, by PTP & all cronies/future paid thug riots/police inactivity.

[Rorri]

Why not give every security cam a public web address so the public can see for themselves what's going on ....

lol..because then every crim, in the world can watch every target they want, case the place, know when cops are close by... etc etc etc...do you actually THINK before posting a comment?

He might have been joking...

and he might NOT be.

[otherstuff1957]

Well, Thailand is already off to a good start. With a little more work they could surpass the UK and the US as the country that watches its citizens most closely.

This map shows countries with heavy surveillance in black and then through a series of colors until you see the freest countries in blue.

[Carrerakiss]

Well, Thailand is already off to a good start. With a little more work they could surpass the UK and the US as the country that watches its citizens most closely. "

I might worry about a lot of things in Thailand, but I would never worry that cameras might be used to watch the population closely. Even if installed correctly, they will never be maintained and even if maintained, nobody will be arsed to watch.

They won't do anything for crime either, but what the heck, another sound bite in the wall.

[offset]

I wonder if they will include the cameras that they are installing in Lumpini Park now

[CIHUAHUA]

What a waste of money! Paint guns could cure the problem.

[indyuk]

Although many engineering hours will be needed to define the proposed surveillance system is a sound idea.

Operators / observers could be minimised in number by the use of IT in the area of face recognition and recognition of patterns of behavior. In this way a small team could take care of hundreds of screen images.

The addition of sound would also allow police to communicate with offenders and tagged probationer's to discourage them from an offence in progress.

Done properly it would allow prisoners that are incarcerated for non violent offence to be discharged from the overcrowded prison system to live out on house arrest.

At the least the project should be studied professionally to make sure that

it's feasible and cost effective.

[tingtongteesood]

Big Brother is watching so be careful what you do people. Can we put cameras in all the rooms in parliament too so that everyone can see the Skype calls from your imperious leader too, who is looking at porn during sessions and who is too busy sleeping to care ? Would be interesting to be a constant fly on the wall there...

[lee b]

Come on ppl, all these negative comments, give the girl a chance !!