Earlyface

Lagos State government, on Monday,
disclosed that it has 1,200 security cameras
across the state with 27 live monitors.
A statement by Governor Babatunde
Fashola’s spokesperson, Hakeem Bello,
stated that it was a demonstration of
government’s commitment to protecting life
and property in the state.
The statement added that Fashola, who
spoke at the demonstration how the
cameras work with the live feed, at the
Command Centre, promised that there
would be more cameras to nip crime in the
bud.
The governor explained that the
demonstration is a follow up to what was
started many years ago when a pilot scheme
was located in Lekki in 2008 with one
camera, saying it was a demonstration of
the resolve of the government to do
something about improving the capability of
its personnel to carry out their duties as far
as protection of life and property, its
primary responsibility, is concerned.
“Now we have moved from a zero camera
state to about 1,200 camera state. How
significant that is, some numbers would
show us. We are now in a position where
we are now on one camera to about 10 sq
kilometers. We are far behind other cities
like New York and London, where they
range between 200 and 450 cameras per Sq
km. but we have moved from over 4000 Sq.
kilometers and we have reduced that
distance significantly.”
“How did we do it, we have merged our
cameras with the ones that the Federal
Government installed, so we have taken all
the feeds in here. We have moved from one
small screen that you saw in Lekki to 27
screens that are collapsible in all forms
either to one big wall, three screens and so
on”, he stressed.
Governor Fashola also explained that it is
vital to focus attention on the fact that the
Camera Control security centre is not a one
event destination but a continuous and
persistent implementation of many small
solutions that has brought the state this far.
He added that it is a big web that started
first with the Security Trust Fund which
provided equipment, vehicles, stuffs and
was followed by street signage because it
was discovered that while the Police could
move they could not identify streets.
“We followed that with house numbering, all
of which are still work- in- progress and we
realise that now that we could get Police to
move, but how do we call them. We moved
from an 11 digit number to three digit
number, 767 or 112 because we did not
think people in trauma will remember an 11
digit number easily and how quickly you can
contact the Police or ambulance is the
difference between what practitioners of
disaster management call the golden hour.”
“You can see how things were layered over
one another and for many years we were
looking for a solution to this work because
we knew this could be a solution. In terms
of the call centre, which is downstairs, in the
last few years, all of the operators, the
ambulance, RRS or Police, and fire service
have their offices in this building. When we
started, they were all operating from one
container”, the Governor said.
He reiterated that power would still be a
critical component of the sustainability of
the initiative because at the moment, the
state is powering at least 66 base stations
with diesels and that the costs could
ordinarily have been saved and put to other
uses especially because they are recurrent
cost on daily basis.