- Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
One of the supposedly concealed CCTV cameras hanging over one of Kingston's busiest streets in full view of passers-by.
Howard Walker, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT is so tight-lipped about its controversial Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) network that even security experts were unprepared to say how much was invested in the system.
"The CCTV system is a security system and therefore I am not authorised to discuss any details on it with the media," said Lt. Colonel Richard Saddler, co-ordinator of the 'top secret' operation.
"It is a national security matter."
Because of the secrecy of the operation, Lt. Colonel Saddler could not say how much is being spent, how many cameras will be installed, or where.
NATIONAL SECURITY EFFORT
"Details revealed would not be helpful to the national security effort," he told The Gleaner.
But Derrick Smith, Opposition spokesman on national security, said some light should be shed on the issue.
"The public ought to know the specifics on the cost of the operation. We don't want to know where the cameras are and so forth," said Smith.
While acknowledging limited knowledge of the system, Smith claimed the cameras are fixed and not up-to-date. "Although useful in a high crime environment, we are a little behind in what is happening worldwide."
According to Smith, modern CCTV cameras are mobile. "Today it is here, tomorrow, somewhere else. Once the cameras are recognised, then the criminal elements will bypass the range of these cameras."
These cameras were supposed to be concealed from the public in an effort to fight crime but according to a street vendor downtown, "Everybody know dem."
According to Saddler, the media needs to get information but the only thing important is that cameras are out there.
Said he: "I understand the need to inform the public but I would appreciate the public's understanding. It's a matter of national security."
Last year March the police acquired a building on Harbour Street, downtown Kingston, from which to monitor the commercial districts in the Corporate Area.
The proposed move to install the CCTV system provoked public debate with sections of the public arguing that it is an infringement on their rights, while some said the police should have gone ahead and installed cameras without informing citizens.
Then there was the thought that the funds invested in the cameras should be used to address the shortfalls of the Jamaica Constabulary Force as inevitably, the CCTV will be vandalised or vanish into thin air.
On Monday The Gleaner reported that the cameras were being vandalised, in one case the utility pole to which a camera was attached was cut down.
