The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) on Friday insisted there was not even a single dummy CCTV camera among the tens of thousands installed in the capital, but admitted many do not work.
The 10,000th closed circuit camera (above) was installed at Victory Monument by City Hall in 2011. Bangkok now has an addition 30,000 CCTVs in place - but are they all operative? (Photo by Apichart Jinakul)
"(Suspended governor) MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra's policy is to install real cameras in all areas. I can guarantee that there are no dummy ones,'' deputy governor Amorn Kitchawengkul said.
''Anybody who finds a fake one can come to me and get 100,000 baht.''
The issue arose after residents in Taling Chan district recently complained that many cameras installed in the area did not work and were useless in preventing crime and catching criminals.
Their complaints were broadcast in a four-minute news item entitled Dummy CCTV produced by Bright News and uploaded by news editor Pimabsorn Ketphum to her Facebook page on April 29.
The owner of the Tek Heng Lee gold shop in the district, who was not named, aired his frustration about the dysfunctional cameras after his shop was robbed in broad daylight and was he told by the BMA that the installed cameras were not yet ready for service.
''I felt cheated. It's like a referee robbing me of a match result in a sport,'' he said.
A woman, whose name was also not disclosed, said she received the same answer after her car was hit by another vehicle on Boromratchonnee Road in the district on April 23.
It is not the first time people in Taling Chan have complained about the security camera network.
In 2009 police tried to view footage from five security cameras installed at Bang Khun Prom intersection, hoping to trace the gunmen who attacked People's Alliance for Democracy leader Sondhi Limthongkul on April 17. Strangely, they found out that all five cameras were not working.
Deputy governor Amorn said about 400 people had contacted the BMA asking to watch footage from CCTV cameras. In about one-third of the cases the footage could not be viewed because the cameras were not fully installed or had broken down.
People who want to view CCTV footage have to go to the control centre at City Hall, he said.
The BMA has plans to install 50,000 CCTVs, to blanket Bangkok city.
To date, 40,000 cameras were functioning and another 7,000 were installed but still awaiting a power hook-up from the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, expected by the end of this year, he said.
The rest would be installed in crime-prone zones and areas where VIPs live, Mr Amorn said.
Another 300 million baht will be spent so that residents can see the pictures at all 50 district offices later this year, he added.
The BMA began the operation by installing about 700 CCTVs in 2009, after the capital was plagued by rallies against then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006.
There have been several contracts announced for increased installation of surveillance cameras, and frequent complaints of dummy cameras being installed, ever since.