Designed to help combat crimes within the state, the system is also being used to detect traffic violations and water levels. It currently utilizes 767 cameras in the Penang island with another 130 cameras are being used at Seberang Perai. An additional 150 and 94 cameras are in the midst of being deployed in both parts of the state respectively.
At the heart of the Pulau Pinang’s facial recognition CCTV system is its Intelligent Operation Center (IOC) which gathers and processes all the data from the CCTVs. Surveillance activity is also being done at the IOC as well. Despite the existence of the system, this doesn’t mean that authorities will nab the suspect straight away. Instead, police will still have to manually monitor the suspect while doing the necessary information crosscheck before they are able to take further action.
Even though the facial recognition CCTV system already has hundreds of cameras at its disposal, Pulau Pinang’s Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow stated that the state still needs at least 3,000 cameras in total to fully take advantage of the system. The deployment of the system which costs RM 12 million is expected to be completed in 2020. (Source: Malay Mail // New Straits Times. Images: PDRM Pulau Pinang.)
