Abu Dhabi: The General Administration of Customs, which comes under the Department of Finance, has officially launched a new surveillance cameras project to help track any smuggling attempts and document seizures called the Surveillance & Operations Cameras Project.
The work on the newly adopted system which started in 2011 is today up and running covering 14 border posts and customs centres across the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Ali Abdullah Al Kuwaiti, Manager of Khatm Shakla Customs Post and Manager of the Surveillance Cameras Project, told reporters yesterday that the cameras have been installed across their posts in the Western Region, Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, including Mina Zayed and Khalifa Port.
“We connected all of these [customs] posts through one control and central operations room in Abu Dhabi,” he said.
During the trial period, a number of arrests were made, he said, adding that the new system will benefit other departments in the UAE and not just the [General Administration of] Customs. “It is a security project at the end of the day,” he said. The second and final phase of the project includes three additional control and central operations rooms at the Ghuwaifat post, the customs centre in Al Ain and at the Abu Dhabi International Airport, Al Kuwaiti said, adding that the three are expected to come online by the end of 2013.
Al Kuwaiti said that the long range cameras with very high resolution footage will help inspectors read body language of travellers and spot any ambiguity.
“If there’s any unusual action then the camera will signal it out. So if someone places a bag and leaves it there for a specific amount of time, then it’ll give you [the inspector] a signal,” he said.
