Contrary to popular belief, police cameras don’t just catch people who decide to answer the call of nature in lifts.
That’s not to say you should attempt it.
Police cameras have helped the police solve real cases, and it has been found people might even feel safer with the surveillance around.
Let’s take a closer look at the information that has been revealed about the efficacy of police cameras in solving cases.
Police Cameras Assisted in Solving More Than 4,900 Cases as of Dec 2020
According to Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam, almost 90,000 cameras have been put in place in major public locations including Housing and Development Board (HDB) estates, neighbourhood centres and carparks.
He mentioned that these police cameras have helped to solve more than 4,900 cases as of December 2020.
During a debate on the Ministry for Home Affairs’ budget for 2021, he also promised that more cameras will be installed islandwide according to budgetary considerations.
Additionally, he pointed out that surveys have found that people feel safer with the tangible presence of police cameras in their neighbourhoods.
Mr Shanmugam also announced several initiatives by Home Team agencies to utilise technology for the expansion of a security operations centre that provides 24-hour protection for networks and systems. You can find out more about this here.
Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh said in response that he supports the use of the surveillance technology as it managed to aid the police in their work.
However, he also raised concerns regarding “how the algorithms behind some of these cameras actually are managed and guarded”.
He also warned that if private information is somehow leaked, it could potentially “damage public confidence in some of this technology that the Home Team seeks to introduce”.
After all, I’m sure none of us want our embarrassing anecdotes being immortalised in the unforgiving space of the Internet.
Mr Shanmugam acknowledged that cameras do raise issues of privacy, but he said that if the police are conducting investigations on crimes, they have the right to “come to your house and ask what you said”.
He added that one would be “duty bound” to cooperate with the police and provide them with the information they need and that “you can’t say (it is) my right of privacy”.
The Big Privacy Debate
Privacy debates are no stranger to Singapore. Data collection has been a tricky point of contention in our country, with some supporting the mass collection of data for the greater good while others feel that the compromising of individual freedoms cannot be overlooked.
This is especially so with debates arising over the revelation that TraceTogether data can be used by the police to assist in their investigations.
There is certainly no easy answer to this question, but the least we can do is to keep updated and informed on how our data is collected, who has access to it and how we can protect our personal privacy to the best of our ability.
For more information on this issue, read this article.
Feature Image: tete_escape / Shutterstock.com
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