Does Zagreb Need Surveillance Expensive Cameras

Zagrebparking is planning a surveillance camera project for 70 thousand kuna per camera. They will monitor parking and help the police.

Great Britain is maybe a country that has gone the furthest to defend their national security, at least as far as the legitimate use of surveillance cameras are concerned, as well as equipment for monitoring data, to better monitor its citizens, as it seems that every one is a potential offender.

Firstly, probably prompted by fear of terror that the start of the decade offered, cameras and surveillance equipment have become more and more popular in European cities. Whilst stress is on the protection of citizens, countries are growing increasingly close to a “police state”, warn activists. Discontent is rising for entering the privacy of citizens, who are sometimes monitored by cameras all of their work day, which leaves people without any privacy, people claim.

Too expensive for this period?

Will the same thing happen to Zagreb? According to a Zagrebparking (Zagreb´s parking company) project, worth around 14 million kuna, made by example of London, will start installing 225 surveillance cameras in May, which will cover the centre of the city. Each camera is allegedly worth 70 thousand kuna, and will be installed to ease city traffic, locate traffic jams, and notice improperly parked cars.

Apart from that, the surveillance would also help Zagreb’s police – an electric eye of the police and intervention on time could significantly reduce the rate of crime. Cameras will be installed on light posts, traffic lights, tram stations, the façades of buildings, which tenants have to give permission for.

However, is Zagreb entering a project that is too expensive, which is increasingly meeting public disapproval in the world, which has been proven as ineffective, and may soon be cancelled?

The recordings from the cameras cannot be used as evidence in court, and their use will be limited to finding perpetrators. As we all know, finding the perpetrator is only the beginning of the process that places offenders behind bars.

For police work, but without human monitoring

Mate Kraljevic, the director of Zagrebparking, told us that the intention behind the cameras is totally benign, and claims that it received only the best impressions in London.

“The cameras will firstly serve to monitor traffic, or if one of the cameras records a façade that for example is covered in graffiti overnight, the cameras will record it. The police will enter the whole project, but not to monitor the citizens. The cameras are for the safety of the citizens, and everything is in the frame of the law. Whoever abuses the cameras, the people that work with them, will be punished, but the aim is not to monitor people” said Kraljevic.

He added: “By installing the cameras the aim is not to monitor the citizens but vehicles that illegally stop and park. We went to London two or three times and it functions excellently over there. I doubt that they will remove them.

However, nobody denies that the system works well. The question is how far the surveillance will go, and what will be checked with the cameras that are placed on the corners, street lights and posts.

Justice system will not profit from cameras

We contacted the HNS (Croatian People’s Party) Zagreb city government member Alenka Kosisa-Cicin-Sain for an opinion, who spent a few months in London for a course, and saw the efficiency of the cameras.

“I saw a few brutal beatings myself in London. I did not have the impression that the cameras helped them” said Cicin-Sain.

However, Alenka Kosisa-Cicin-Sain said that it has to be weighed. However much the cameras are maybe interfering with the privacy of the citizens, it is much more invading of privacy when somebody beats you up on the street, which might be stopped with the cameras. However, Cicin-Sain thinks that it is a wrong move for this time.

“It seems that in a time of recession, we should not invest in such a system. That is really “an expensive sport” for our financial situation. We are not a city of such proportions that we cannot fight crime in another way” said Cicin-Sain. She considers the police work in catching criminals satisfactory, and that mistakes are made in the justice system, and mentioned that the recordings from the cameras are not usable as evidence in court.