[WATCH] Paceville shop-owners say they want facial recognition CCTV

Is Paceville ready for facial recognition CCTV?

Paceville shop-owners today said facial recognition CCTV was desperately required in Paceville due to the area’s burgeoning problems with drugs and anti-social behaviour. 

They said that the technology would certainly be helpful in deterring criminal behaviour and they had no qualms about data protection issues. “People like you and me, law-abiding citizens, have nothing to fear,” one shopkeeper said. 

The Huawei-powered facial recognition CCTV, pioneered through the government-owned company Safe City Malta, has been operational in a closed environment over the past months, home affairs minister Michael Farrugia said. 

The idea for a Huawei-deployed facial recognition surveillance system was in the pipeline last year until a MaltaToday report triggered a privacy scare that got the attention of the United Nation's High Commission for Human Rights special rapporteur on privacy, Prof Joseph Cannataci. 

Since then, however, Cannataci held a meeting with Joe Cuschieri, director of Safe City Malta, to flag the privacy concerns over the Safe City concept.  

Farrugia and parliamentary secretary for digital innovation Silvio Schembri addressed a press conference outside Paceville on Friday morning, where they said Huawei’s technolopgy at its joint innovation centre at Smart City would strengthen security in areas like Paceville and Marsa. “Police are currently studying hotspots and understanding criminality,” Farrugia said. “This would be a method of visible policing.” 

Farrugia said the government is also investing in technology to safeguard the country from cyber attacks. “Such technology is already in place but improvements need to be made. Safe City, on the other hand, will be the first initiative of its kind. It’s already in a trial-run phase and the government is experimenting with a rudimentary version of the technology behind closed doors. The implementation of the technology in Paceville will act as a benchmark for future installations.”