CCTV cameras to keep watch over Metro crime-prone areas

After installing closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in Pasay City, police will set up surveillance cameras around Caloocan City to deter crime.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Francis Tolentino, Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina and top police officials launched on Wednesday the second phase of “Project Safe KAm.”

Under the second phase, 34 CCTV cameras will be installed in crime-prone areas in the city, particularly Monumento, to bolster the monitoring of street crimes and help in the arrest of criminals.

In May, Roxas the PNP launched the first phase of the project by installing 32 cameras along the EDSA-Taft intersection in Pasay City.

The succeeding phases of Project Safe KAm will see the setting up of cameras in other crime-prone areas in the National Capital Region, including the University Belt and De La Salle University in Manila; MRT North Edsa and Cubao in Quezon City, and the Baclaran Church in Parañaque City.

Senior Superintendent Manuel Lukban, of the NCR Police Office, said all CCTV cameras would be operating 24/7 and monitored by police community precincts in the localities.

Earlier, Roxas said the Caloocan CCTV project costed about P900,000 and was being financed through a partnership between the PNP and the private sector.

The projects are under the PNP’s anti-crime campaign “Oplan Lambat-Sibat.”

Since its implementation in June last year, the Lambat-Sibat approach has led to the decrease in crime in Metro Manila by 60 percent, according to the PNP.