Idea: HDB community roster CCTV recordings

Stabbing at Tampines: Police & Town Council ‘taichi’ responsibility?

April 25th, 2010 | Author: Contributed

The victim stabbed was my 21-year old cousin, a Singaporean student. She is now fearful of going home at night, as are her family. I live in Tampines as well. The police did nothing to warn us, no posters, no newspaper reports, no CCTVs put up, no patrols around, despite appeals to the town council, MPs, and the police by her family. No newspaper reported this. This might be going on much more frequently than you are aware of in your own neighbourhood, HDB or landed, and nothing is being done about it. We might be becoming as lawless as JB, despite being told we are a “1st world country”.

The following is my letter to the Straits Times which they refused to publish:--

Stabbing incident: Install CCTVs in void decks, lifts

ON THE evening of Nov 8 last year, my 21-year-old cousin sister was stabbed in the lift of our block in Tampines as she was going home.

The assailant entered the lift seconds before the door closed, and plunged the knife in her back before demanding money.

He threatened to stab her again until she promised she would not tell the police about the attack.

My sister recovered after an operation. Since her recovery, we have repeatedly appealed to the town council and the police to install closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) at the void deck and lifts.

We also appealed for posters to be put up to raise public awareness of the unsolved stabbing.

We feared that the attack on my sister could happen to other residents.

Unfortunately, the town council told us the police should take up our suggestions while the police said it was the town council’s job.

The only response thus far to our appeal was a letter from the police informing us of increased patrols.

We wrote back, stating that the measure may not be sufficient, given the spate of robberies within a 1km radius of our block in the past six months.

We understand that several victims had to be treated in hospital.

In the same letter, which we copied to the town council, we appealed for the installation of CCTVs.

After waiting for three months for a reply, we gave up. We worry when we walk around our neighbourhood, especially after dark.

We should not feel this way and hope the authorities will act effectively to make residents feel safer in their own neighbourhood.

GOH Hui Mei (Ms)

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RH:
1. Today's ST article that some Town Councils even install dummy CCTVs in HDB lift landings and inside lifts highlights 3 problems with CCTVs:

a. Cost of buying and installing CCTVs
b. Cost of hiring [security] personnel to MONITOR these CCTVs
c. Recording all the feeds from all the CCTVs

2. As for Cost of buying and installing CCTVs, the obvious solution is to buy in bulk with a big, combined tender, besides shopping for the most cost-effective brands and models.

3. As for Cost of hiring [security] personnel to MONITOR these CCTVs [since they are of little use if nobody is watching], we can copy a solution used in Hongkong and some other cities, and that is to channel the feeds or signals from these CCTVs to the HDB rooftop central TV antenna terminal or StarHub cable tv terminal in each HDB block, so that each and every tv set in each of the flats in the block, whether watching over the air channels or cable tv, can switch on their tv, tune in to the CCTV channels, and watch in realtime each of the CCTV feeds. This already marketed solution used in many cities may allow each tv set to 'tune in' to a particular CCTV feed signal, eg, a particular in-Lift CCTV or a composite split-screen image of many CCTV feeds like those on security guards' monitors. Feeds can also alternate from different CCTV or CCTV groups so that every CCTV feed can be watched in turn. With this system, and with publicity given to this system, would-be robbers will think twice about robbing, since they may be seen in realtime and an alert watcher could instantly call the police [have the nearest police station hotline given together with the notices of each block's new CCTV system, in the form of a handy card or calendar or standee].

4. As for Recording all the feeds from all the CCTVs, this takes work, time and money. It should be done, nevertheless, if the Town Council can afford these. If not, why not get cooperative households to help? Since each flat has the feeds from the CCTV available on its tv set channels, participating flats can do roster duty, in which each flat is obliged to record a set number of hours of specified CCTVs so that all the CCTVs in and near the block are recorded 24/7 every day, without pause, with back-ups in case a designated roster household fails. TCs can give a rebate on its TC charges for participating households. Of course, each participating household has to be given instructions how to do this, plus read the instructions on a website maintained by a central org or each TC.

5. This roster system could be as simple as using a VCR to record the CCTV channel but since VCRs are now obsolete, participating households could be given subsidies for, or even a free, recorder. Recorders to record tv channels include DVD-RW/R recorders [no longer sold] and HDD recorders, etc. These are now cheap. For example, an LG brand HDD Recorder with 160G hard drive can record up to 460 hours = 19 days and costs just S$399. So, 10 households recording in turn, according to roster, can record 190 days = 6 months. Thus, 10 recorders will cost you S$3,990 or double this for another 10 recorders as back up.

6. To ensure roster households record diligently, TCs can do random spot checks by asking for specific recordings of specified times and dates. This is easier done than said actually, since most HDB blocks have at least 1 police, CID or ISD family and these families can easily approach a particular household to check a particular recording. If not, every block has a Block Representative, usually a PAP member, often a 'grassroots' leader, who will be only too eager to perform this 'public service'.

7. TCs and police also have to decide how long recordings have to be retained before overwriting the files. In the event of a robbery, etc, CCTV footage will then be available to identify the criminal offender. If lapses in recordings is a big problem, negligent households can be shamed, or even prosecuted since by accepting a free or subsidised recorder, plus maybe a rebate in TC fees, roster households are probably bound by duty not to be negligent.

8. Thus, with some expenditure and organisation, each and every HDB block -- in which 85% of the pop lives -- will be well covered with CCTV security. What is more important is that instead of passively expecting their security to be provided by the TCs and police, each and every flat in each and every HDB block [private condos have their own security guards and CCTVs] in the entire islet of Singapore will be actively participating in their own security. A worthwhile goal in itself and won't cost much money, most of it one-time costs, while peace of mind is, as they say, priceless.

9. If desired and costs allow, this CCTV system can thus extend to cover 85% of the population living in HDB blocks. Or it can extend only to those blocks with a known criminal attack problem/s, although to install after an attack seems a little belated. The next paras relate to the invention of iCCTVs and are strictly of little relevance to the original problems of criminal attacks in Tampines TC blocks. Those faint of heart may stop here. For those who want to allow their imaginations to float higher to a nationwide system of CCTV recordings, please read on.

10. We can now easily and cheaply buy a spycam or CCTV, leave it on and connected to our home wi-fi and thus to the internet, and from any pc anywhere, see what it is pointed at. Many families use this to check on their maids or kids at home, watching through an internet browser its images.

11. That spycam uses wi-fi to connect to the internet, and is thus limited to wi-fi areas, which even using the latest 802.11n or N signals, travels a mere 70m. However, most cities are blanketed by almost 100% coverage by cellphone base station signals, which is why our smartphones can connect to the internet anywhere it is in range of its cellphone base station. Thus, if we drop the wi-fi spycam and instead, use cellphone 3G signals, we can place a spycam almost anywhere in the city, needing just an electrical power wire, for it to connect to the internet and send its images to the internet like the current wi-fi spycam. This instantly takes all the work out of spycams and makes it easy and therefore cheap, to install. We can call this new invention an iCCTV.

12. The iCCTV will be a conventional CCTV, only that it will have a chip like those in smartphones, to connect to 3G base stations, so can transmit images continuously to the internet, to any pc or smartphone that knows its IP address and/or its password. Of course, since our iCCTV uses smartphone signals, it will have a SIMcard and thus need to connect to a telco operating its cellphone base station. If a telco fails for a long time, simply change the SIMcard to another telco whose base stations cover the area the iCCTV is placed. If you use a battery for the iCCTV, you don't even need a single wire at all and can simply attach it to any spot to start recording, until the battery runs out. However, most electronic devices 'hang' now and then and need to be reset. So manufacturers will need to test how long an iCCTV can record continuously before 'hanging'. Once this is known, the iCCTV can be made to auto-reset once in a while, before it would 'hang' on average. Auto-resets will take only a minute or so but it is best to 'schedule' this auto-reset during 'off-peak' times when there is unlikely to be any crime, such as in the middle of the night.

13. This means anyone anywhere in the world can watch the iCCTV images as long as he knows its IP address and/or its password. This means that participating households can be roped in to roster record practically all the iCCTVs on the islet cheaply and easily. An alternative is for the telcos themselves to record, since the images go directly through their servers. They can be requested to record and keep these recordings for a specified time. Recording media is cheap nowadays. However, the data plans for each iCCTV will have to be reasonable, since they are on 24/7 forever.

14. Thus, Tampines TC little problem is solved by para 8. The rest relate to a new invention that will take a year or two to materialise. Read up to para 8 only to solve Tampines TC problem. The rest is a future you need not worry about as only the bold will seize it.

--
RH: ME ON VIDEO DESCRIBING lky lhl wks NUMEROUS ELECTION RIGGINGS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/%22A%20Video%20RH%20on%20LKY%20LHL%20WKS%20cheating%20elections%22

MY ACQUAINTANCE, MR DAVID DUCLOS, A FORMER POLICE INSPECTOR, AND HIS LAWYER FRIEND, EYEWITNESSED LEE KUAN YEW RIGGING THE 1997 CHENG SAN GRC ELECTION. READ MORE AT MY BLOG ENTITLED "I CAME, I SAW, I SOLVED IT" :
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/

MY ONLINE POLICE REPORT ON LKY LHL WKS CHEATING ELECTIONS:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/police-report-lee-ky-lhl-wks-cheating_02.html

THE MOST COMPLETE RUBBISHING OF LEEconomics EVER:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2009/06/most-complete-rubbishing-of-leeconomics.html

[ALSO AT THE ABOVE BLOG, LIE KUAN YEW's LIES, CORRUPTION, WRONGFUL JAILING, TORTURE AND BEATING TO DEATH OF INNOCENT POLITICAL PRISONERS LIKE MR CHAN HOCK HUA]

READ ALSO MARTYN SEE's INTERVIEW WITH ME AT:
http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/

ALSO AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/2007/03/filmmaker-martyn-see-interviews-robert.html

FOR QUICK, IRREVERENT REASONS WHY LIE KY DESERVES A NOBEL:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/Not%20nominated%20for%20a%20Nobel%20so%20LIE%20KY%20gives%20himself%20many%20others

MY ARCHIVE OF WORKS AT:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-wrote-it.blogspot.com/

PHOTOS OF LIE KY SCRATCHING MY WIFE's NEW CAR:
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/search/label/LIE%20KY%20scratched%20my%20car%20S%242800%20to%20repair

NOT GUILTY BUT TORTURED, DEGRADED 15 YEARS FOR PUBLICITY, FUN
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/05/not-guilty-but-tortured-degraded-15.html

WHY SINGAPORE HAS NO ECONOMY
http://i-came-i-saw-i-solved-it.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-singapore-has-no-economy.html
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