Billions of Baht later, doubts persist about Bangkok CCTV

[webfact]

Billions of Baht Later, Doubts Persist About Bangkok CCTV
By Sasiwan Mokkhasen
Staff Reporter


The 2011 discovery of this fake security camera, the details of which were posted online to the popular Pantip forum, resulted in the admission that upward of 500 such fake cameras had been installed in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — When Miruntee Katethip went to city hall and asked to see security camera footage of the day her house in western Bangkok was robbed this past March, she was told only five of 26 cameras in the area worked correctly.

When police turned to city-operated CCTVs for leads in August after the greatest apparent act of terrorism in modern Thai history, the police chief said 15 of 20 along the suspected bomber’s escape route were broken.

While law enforcement has become more reliant than ever on such systems – running the tapes being the starting point of many investigations – doubts about the capital city’s network of cameras persist, four years after the embarrassing discovery that hundreds were just empty shells.

“As we all have seen from the Ratchaprasong bombing case, the police themselves said that no useful footage was received from Bangkok’s CCTVs”, said police Cpt. Jomdet Trimek, a lecturer of Criminology and Criminal Justice Administration at Rangsit University.

Jomdet said Bangkok’s implementation of a closed-circuit television system has been a failure and made law enforcement, already notorious for its inefficiency, even worse.

A month before a powerful bomb killed 20 people, mostly tourists, at the Erawan Shrine on Aug. 17, Jomdet had concluded in his second study on the issue that the public felt no safer than they did in 2010, despite the number of CCTVs increasing to 50,000 from 20,000. The reason? Most people assume they are either fake or broken.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1445494994


-- Khaosod English 2015-10-22

[Pattaya28]

Cannot make this stuff up !!

[Reigntax]

Fake cameras. Good for fake cops to make fake arrests. Would we expect anything else?

[nikmar]

Maybe they have more faith in the fortune tellers.

[clockman]

Nice little earner, for somebody! Always remember. Nothing is what it seems. In Thailand.

[NCC1701A]

maybe the cop with the Land Rover parked at my local BIB station here in Hua Hin knows what happened to the cameras.

he has a nice seaside restaurant here too. not joking.

Edited October 22, 2015 by NCC1701A

[NCC1701A]

"ok, we are putting in 50,000 cameras!"

"and?"

"then all the video from the 50,000 cameras go on a server."

"a what?"

"yes, all the images are stored as files and are placed in a huge library sorted by time, date and location."

blank stare.

[catterwell]

Nice little earner, for somebody! Always remember. Nothing is what it seems. In Thailand.

Nothing is what it seems, so you assume that it's not what it seems, ie it seems as though it's not what it seems. Ergo, sometimes it is what it seems.

[jmccarty]

There is good money to be made in selling wind to the public!

[Emster23]

Fake cameras. Good for fake cops to make fake arrests. Would we expect anything else?

If they would only take fake tea money, then everybody could be happy.....

[rodknock]

the dog and pony show show's it's face!!!!!!

[monty1412]

Effective planing and execution has and will remain a problem here......

[Jimbo2014]

Given that the problem is so obvious and public... will anyone actually do anything about it this time? will anyone be held accountable? (ok these are rhetorical questions - just asking )

[StatlerandWaldorf]

Is anybody REALLY surprised?

In a nation where appearance trumps everything else, what can you expect?

Form over function, as long as it looks good who cares if it works or not?

[SoFarAndNear]

Probably most of the cameras are broken after 2-3 years in the thai climate. Especially the ones which are permanently in the sun and in the rain....

[whatproblem]

And what is going to happen to the people responsible? nothing

[oneday]

"...after the greatest apparent act of terrorism in modern Thai history..."

Careful reporter. The authorities have declared this was NOT an act of terrorism and if they say so then it must be.

We all know what happened with the CCTV system. All those fake cameras were charged to the city at the normal 100 times going rate and we all know where all that money went.

[Tom Cahill]

Nice little earner, for somebody! Always remember. Nothing is what it seems. In Thailand.

Very astute comment.

Could it be possible that they rolled out the fake cameras following a proposal to do so to save the higher cost of putting in ones that are correctly wired up AND, that the company/s involved, or rather the people behind the company/s are counting on a scandal and the massive conversion effort which the public's anger will prompt? I think it's very likely. The CCTV on the TfL network's all incredibly involved in a whole lot of things---terrorism for one. Of course the fact that they never catch any of these events cannot be an accident. Whenever anything happens that would make them worth while, they don't get a mention, let alone get used. Verint Systems have the contract. They're an Israeli firm. I used to work for TfL and the Woolwich 'attack' was on their network, and would have been picked up on the CCTV for sure. They have the cameras and remote controls on every floor of the office I worked in. The TfL tweet announcing a temporary road closure is also significant to that incident. Also, the Oyster card details of the bus which stopped for no reason not at a bus stop, where all of the 'unknown passengers' got off or disappeared onto.

Does anyone know who put all these cameras in, monitors them, etc.?

[phil2407]

Fake empty shell cameras in los - don't believe it haha - so who signed the agreements with the camera company's and got the kickbacks - and more important I know bib not the best but if government cctv and camera isn't working no check no central control centre and who runs those - same people that awarded the contracts - is that not draft? Or embesslement where I come from - common BK mayor or whatever you're called - time to tell or let the powers that be do it - doubt sweet FA will happen because TIT

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

You would think they would have a systems check periodically clean and repair or replace. Must be rocket science... Duh

[AlQaholic]

Maybe they can increase the number of those plastic police dummies on the roads, They will certainly not do less than the actual version out there.

[asdecas]

All that remains now is for the reward paid to the rozzers to have been counterfeit money, then we'd have a Full House.

[off road pat]

Cannot make this stuff up !!

It's even worse,.....The then Governor of Bangkok, that had those Fake CCTV cameras installed charged the government for real ones.....!!!.. I read this in the newspaper some +/- 10 years ago....Nothing happened after the news was known by the public ,.....This is Thailand !!!

Best regards, Off Road Pat

[off road pat]

Fake empty shell cameras in los - don't believe it haha - so who signed the agreements with the camera company's and got the kickbacks - and more important I know bib not the best but if government cctv and camera isn't working no check no central control centre and who runs those - same people that awarded the contracts - is that not draft? Or embesslement where I come from - common BK mayor or whatever you're called - time to tell or let the powers that be do it - doubt sweet FA will happen because TIT

The then Governor of Bangkok, that had those Fake CCTV cameras installed charged the government for real ones.....!!!.. I read this in the newspaper some +/- 10 years ago....Nothing happened after the news was known by the public ,.....This is Thailand !!!

Best regards, Off Road Pat

[Johpa]

What do you expect in this Land of Make Believe where people are imprisoned for not believing in Fairy Tales? We have aircraft carriers that not only don't launch aircraft but rarely leave the pier. They are now asking for submarines to patrol the shallows of the Gulf of Siam. And now fake CCTV cameras sold online for under 300 baat.

The words of Lennox and Stewart come to mind:

Sweet dreams are made of this

Who am I to disagree?

I travel the world

And the seven seas,

Everybody's looking for something.

Some of them want to use you

Some of them want to get used by you

Some of them want to abuse you

Some of them want to be abused.

But once again there is, as always, only one word for these situations.

Chaiyo!

[spidermike007]

The executives of the company responsible for the contract on these cameras should be prosecuted and sent to a maximum security prison for ten to twenty years. Talk about setting a precedent.

Or taken out into the town square, and lashed, Henry VIII style.

[schietkop]

Effective planing and execution has and will remain a problem here......

I think this was planned VERY well, and executed greatly, someone has a new seaside restaurant and beachhouse in Hua Hin .... and the sheep (or buffaloes?) in the country are grazing ever hapily

[wow64]

Shouldn't the person/party that installed these fake cameras have to pay for the loss out of their own pocket... Or is that just a one sided case?

I feel allot safer with fake cameras everywhere.

[EnglishJohn]

The executives of the company responsible for the contract on these cameras should be prosecuted and sent to a maximum security prison for ten to twenty years. Talk about setting a precedent.

Or taken out into the town square, and lashed, Henry VIII style.

But will certainly be found guilty on the first trial then acquitted due to insufficient evidence on appeal.

First go try your luck, second go spend some of the money you made.

Nobody with the power to make or enforce the laws in Thailand want to change the way it is.

[Borzandy]

maybe the cop with the Land Rover parked at my local BIB station here in Hua Hin knows what happened to the cameras.

he has a nice seaside restaurant here too. not joking.

Are you sure ? cause all the Hua Hin sea side restaurants are built on the public land...