1,300 live cameras with facial recognition connected in Norilsk
Privacy will never be the same in the world’s second largest city inside the Arctic Circle. Emerging surveillance technologies are in the final stages of testing and will be fully operational in April.
In Russia it is called “Safe City project” and it is already online in several cities, including Murmansk and Moscow. Next out in the comprehensive monitoring of citizens is Norilsk, the closed city built by Stalin’s Norillag-prisoners on the tundra south on the Taymyr Peninsula.
With more than 170,000 inhabitants, it is the world’s second largest (after Murmansk) inside the Arctic Circle. Nickel, copper and platinum are the main mining and metallurgical industries and the only reason for Norilsk’s existence.
There are already 1,311 video cameras online in Norilsk, the local newspaper Taymyrskii Telegraph reports.
In April, all surveillance systems will be connected to a central monitoring and data-storage systems, said to have capacity to store recordings from all 1,300 cameras in up to 30 days.
Norilsk city authorities in charge have named the monitoring program “Prevention of offenses and strengthening of interethnic and interfaith harmony.”
Cameras are put up on bus stops, building entrances, cross-roads and other locations where people walk or drive. Data transmission network is installed, users are connected, communication lines are in place, city authorities tell to the newspaper.
Computer vision-based video management system allows for analysis of the video stream from all connected cameras and recognises people in the frame, comparing them with loaded databases. This can also be done retroactively by playing back and analysing events. Or, law enforcement agencies can search for a specific person, based on selected recognised images.
In Moscow, camera playbacks based on facial recognition have played an important role in court cases against anti-war, anti-regime activists.
