Government to link CCTVs to national ID database in crime crackdown, CS Murkomen
Government to link CCTVs to national ID database in crime crackdown, CS Murkomen
The Ministry of Interior plans to integrate the National Registration Bureau database with the new mass surveillance systems across the five cities in the country as part of speeding up criminal investigations, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has revealed.
Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV on Monday, June 22, Murkomen said the technology will enable security agencies to match faces captured by CCTV cameras with official government records, including ID photos, allowing police to quickly identify individuals suspected of committing crimes.
According to Murkomen, the National Police Service is currently unable to automatically identify suspects captured on surveillance cameras because Kenya lacks a facial recognition database integrated with official identity records.
“We do not have a database with facial recognition technology that already has the facial recognition for Kenyans, where you merge the faces you get from the cameras to the database to establish the credentials of an individual,” Murkomen stated.
The CS explained that the government intends to incorporate the technology into the Integrated Command, Control and Communication Centre (IC3), which is currently undergoing upgrades.
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The proposed system would allow police officers to compare images captured by CCTV cameras with photographs stored in official government records, making it easier to identify suspects linked to criminal activities.
“Once we establish this technology, we will slowly build in the data of various people based on information in the ID. Police will now be able to use the faces of Kenyans with their pictures in the official data,” he added.
Currently, police rely on manually reviewing CCTV footage and releasing images of suspects to the public in the hope of receiving information that can aid investigations.
The revelations come days after the ministry announced that it is planning to roll out surveillance cameras in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru, Eldoret and Nyeri to curb criminal activities.
Murkomen disclosed that the government is in the final stages of procuring the technology, with authorities hoping to conclude the procurement process within two months at a cost not exceeding Ksh25 billion.
Nairobi is expected to be among the first beneficiaries of the project, with the rollout projected to take between three and six months after procurement is completed.
On privacy and data protection, the CS insisted that the cameras would only be installed in public places and not private areas such as hotels or homes.
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