Police chief Joe Chow on Sunday (Feb. 15) said he hopes the force can adopt facial recognition technology this year or next for their network of CCTV cameras around Hong Kong.
The Security Bureau had said that at the end of last year, there were some 11,000 surveillance cameras in use, of which 5,000 were installed by the force and 6,000 from other government departments.
The plan is to have 60,000 cameras under its SmartView programme covering the entire city in two years, with more to be added down the line.
Speaking on a TVB programme, Chow stressed that factors in play regarding the use of facial recognition include technical issues, the public's level of acceptance level as well as the legal framework.
He noted that many places around the world already use facial recognition, and for crime prevention and detection, the more cameras the better.
"I think say some 20, 30 years ago, we looked into this matter [regarding privacy issues], and the society broadly opposed the cameras," the police chief said.
"But times have changed. You can see that, not just on the mainland, you can see surveillance cameras installed within a couple of steps in many other places around the world."
Chow also said that police are looking to incorporate CCTV at shopping malls into its network this year, as some corporations have given positive feedback.
"We're looking at malls where there are many people, or that we think their locations are rather strategic," he said.
"After all, I don't necessarily talk about what happens inside the malls, but when people pass by the area, they're already strategic locations."
The police commissioner went on to say that cameras for some malls might not be useful at first, but the force might incorporate them into the network when officers think they are needed later.
(Source: RTHK)
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