Security and Technology

In this column I have often reviewed several aspects of the failure of security policy and law and order in Nigeria, and one of the depressing aspects of our current security architecture and management system has been the absolutely outdated methods we have adopted especially in policing. Walk into any Nigerian police station and the first thing you notice is the absence of any equipment or implements that may be considered technologically advanced. There are no computers, scanners, no Wi-Fi or internet modems…there are no air conditioners even! Thank God for the mobile telecommunications revolution, all police officers today invariably have a personal mobile phone on them which facilitates their official work very significantly, but the authorities have done very little or nothing to leverage technology in policing on a systemic basis. If you ask for and peruse statement forms in our police stations, you would realize that they were probably designed more than five decades ago! Happily some of this may be changing. I had an opportunity in January to visit the ultra-modern Lagos State Command and Control Centre at Alausa, Ikeja and was glad that finally the Nigerian security establishment, starting as usual from Lagos, is beginning to understand the imperative of technology in modern security architecture. The Centre is an effort by the Lagos State Government, in conjunction with the police and other security agencies operating in the state, to adopt technologies and practices already in use in modern global megacities in policing and security management. It is a world-class security infrastructure including an expansive video wall with twenty-seven screens integrated with analytics software and linked with a vast network of solar-powered CCTV cameras installed across the state. Of course for these infrastructures to “talk” there is a communication backbone including transmission base stations, radio and fibre links and other components as well as back-up power. This initiative is a good example of sensible federal-state collaboration to enhance public welfare-one thousand cameras were procured and installed in Lagos by the federal government while the state administration has complemented these with hundreds of additional cameras. The state government is also reportedly in the process of deploying many more video cameras to ensure pervasive coverage of the state. The Command and Control Centre is of course the “brain” of the system-there is no use buying and installing cameras if you do not include the requisite communication links, analytics and video screens as well as trained and motivated personnel who are able to leverage the information so obtained for preemptive or detective policing and enforcement. It is also an example of excellent public-private partnership-the seed donation of N150million provided by telecommunications giant, MTN years back gave the Lagos State Government the impetus to deploy further resources towards constructing the control center. There is additional critical private sector input-the Call Centre which is integral to the Command and Control Centre’s operations is managed by a visionary and dynamic private sector institution. That Call Centre is in itself part of the strategic leverage of technology and communications towards bolstering security in Lagos State. Calls to the state’s emergency numbers-767 and 112 are received in the computerized Call Centre, from where they are transmitted to the relevant security or emergency management agencies for immediate follow-up action-all such agencies are physically represented in the same location for effective coordination and integration. Thus with the investments made by the Lagos State Government, what you now have is an integrated system including a call centre, an emergency telephone response system, video conferencing facilities (which enable coordination of multiple agencies and personnel-police, military, security and intelligence, traffic management, emergency agencies, civil defense, fire and accident/ambulance services etc.) and video surveillance system all enhancing public safety and crime prevention and detection in the state. There are other basic elements of this integrated strategy-the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) which enables the state bridge the chronic funding shortfall of the security agencies by the federal government leveraging state and private sector resources; the initiative towards registering citizens and residents in the state; improvement in street signage and house numbering which are still works-in-progress; and the 767 and 112 emergency numbers I mentioned earlier. There has been significant positive impact from these investments though I am not inclined to discuss details so as not to compromise the work of the security agencies. What is clear from the limited brief I received was that several crimes have already been detected leveraging the resources in this system. It is of course not yet uhuru! With these investments, Lagos now has one camera to every 10 square metres while New York and London have between 200 to 450 cameras over the equivalent territory, so clearly additional cameras are required-it would be useful if private institutions and residents, including estate associations procure CCTVs in their proprietary zones to complement public investments; personnel is critical-educated, trained and well-motivated policemen and other security officers who can think through the information provided and act appropriately and proactively; there remains a need to enhance quality analytics to process the images received in the command centre and spot unusual activity; and we must invest in intelligence to complement the technology leverage secured from the investments made.