Thailand’s award-winning ‘Smart Safety Zone’ makes cities much safer: police
The Royal Thai Police’s “Smart Safety Zone 4.0” project has given people a lot more confidence in police operations, deputy National Police chief Pol General Surachate Hakparn said.
He was speaking at the “Thailand Smart City: Bangkok Model” forum hosted by Nation TV and Post Today at Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel on Tuesday.
“Apart from people’s confidence in police operations rising 80%, their fear of crime has dropped to below 40% as well,” he said, citing police data from November 2021 to June this year.
The Smart Safety Zone 4.0 was initiated by former National Police chief Pol General Suwat Jangyodsuk last year as part of the plan to create smart cities.
“The project covers painting roads, trimming trees, setting up street lights and a network of ‘smart’ CCTV cameras,” he added.
He said the artificially intelligent (AI) cameras now allow the police to identify suspects in two minutes instead of two days previously.
“More such cameras have been installed in Bangkok’s busy Lumpini and Huai Khwang districts,” he said.
He also thanked residents for allowing the police to install CCTV cameras to efficiently prevent crime.
“Initially people did not want to cooperate with the police on this issue, because they were afraid their privacy would be violated,” he said, adding that the residents regained confidence once they were invited to check out operations at the police war room.
The Smart Safety Zone 4.0 project also won the “Best Experience in Community Policing” award at the World Police Summit 2022 held in Dubai in March, he said.
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