The Police Chief in Minoh, Osaka asked the Mayor to install security cameras on city streets. They were concerned about a number of kidnapping cases of young children which had recently taken place throughout Japan and reports of what seemed to be attempted kidnapping incidents within the city as well, so the city coun
The Police Chief in Minoh, Osaka asked the Mayor to install security cameras on city streets. They were concerned about a number of kidnapping cases of young children which had recently taken place throughout Japan and reports of what seemed to be attempted kidnapping incidents within the city as well, so the city council decided to install security cameras to ensure safety on the school routes to prevent such crimes against young children.
Solution
After a screening process, the Minoh City Council decided to install Axis network cameras. Since it features Axis' Lightfinder technology, it can capture clear color images even in low-light environments and are equipped with a privacy masking function that can mask specified locations such as house entrances and windows in order to protect residents' privacy.
In the two-month period between February and March 2015, security cameras were installed on 14 municipal elementary and middle school routes. On average, 50 cameras were installed per school route, totaling 750 throughout the city. The collected data is stored for about one week, and can be provided to the police if necessary for investigations.
Result
The installation of the cameras had an instant effect. A purse snatcher on a moped was arrested in June 2015. Multiple cameras captured clear images of details of the moped, the clothing of the suspect and the stolen purse, and an arrest was made using the images captured. This was the first case where a suspect was arrested thanks to a camera installed by the city council. In addition, the number of reports about suspicious incidents has been halved since 2014.