City's police plan on connecting to cameras located in businesses, public institutions, and municipal buildings in order to receive real-time images of street. Thus far, police have tapped into some 150 cameras

Eli Senyor Published: 04.13.10, 18:40 / Israel News




You soon will not be able to walk around Tel Aviv without being watched by the police.



Police officials revealed Tuesday their new security program, which will include the use of thousands of cameras located throughout the city.



The police are planning to tap into cameras affixed in businesses, public institutions, and municipal buildings in order to receive real-time images from the field. Thus far, the police have connected to 150 such cameras. By the end of the project, the police plan to connect to 3,000 cameras.



Police officials say they understood it is expedient to make broad use of security cameras, stationed nearly everywhere throughout the city, via the internet. In the case of an occurrence in a certain locale within the Tel Aviv district, police computer experts will connect to the camera located in the area in order to direct forces in the field.




The police plan to promote legislation that will allow them to obligate every person in possession of such cameras to connect automatically to the police camera grid.



Police Chief Inspector Oren Meshulam, who is in charge of networking the cameras, said: "This is a project that could help the police immensely in real-time. Through connecting to the cameras, it will be possible to direct forces to arrive much quicker to the scene of the crime and locate suspects while the forces are still on their way."



"These cameras could, in essence, serve as an additional set of eyes for us," he said.



Tel Aviv -