My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: How US Gov US$400,000 Body Cameras, HD CCTV Camera Network, NWA PEN, GOVnet are connected

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

How US Gov US$400,000 Body Cameras, HD CCTV Camera Network, NWA PEN, GOVnet are connected

“They [US government] are the ones procuring the cameras, so it is within their procurement process, so as you can appreciate, it's out of my control”

Minister of National Security Peter Bunting speaking on the recent donation of some US$400,000 (JA$45.4 million) by the US Government to buy Body Cameras for the Jamaican Police

It took yet another extrajudicial killing, this time of cook shop operator Nakia Jackson in downtown Kingston on Monday January 20th 2014 as reported in the article “Cook Shop Vendor Killed, INDECOM Investigates Case Of Mistaken Identity”, Published Tuesday January 21, 2014 9:03 am, The Jamaica Gleaner for the Ministry of National Security to finally make good on the promise of introducing Body Cameras.

Or rather the Minister of National Security, Peter Bunting, but apparently not of his own free will; the American Government has a rather big stick over his head.

The US Government has decided to donate some US$400,000 (JA$45.4 million) towards the purchase Body Cameras for the JCF (Jamaica Constabulary Force) aka the Jamaican Police as reported in the article “US to donate $45 million for police Body Cameras”, Published Tuesday December 2, 2014, by Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer, The Jamaica Gleaner.



For those with good memories, this is the same Minister of National Security Peter Bunting who had promised in January 2014 that Body Camera for select police were coming as noted in my blog article entitled “Min. of National Security Peter Bunting plans to have Jamaican Police wear Body Cameras - INDECOM ‘s eyes and Ears will make Video, Audio and Still Pictures Admissible in Court”.

I also added my two cents to the debate as to how it could be implemented. I suggested that the Still images, Voice HD and Video could be relayed or “piggybacked” onto the GOJ's HD CCTV Network as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Jamaica’s National Security Ministry plans CCTV Network and Automated Traffic Ticketing System”.

Based on my sources, this HD CCTV Network is planned to be a 100Mbps capable Network that combines the NWA (National Work Agency) Traffic Monitoring Network with the 100Mbps Fiber Optic Network originally part of E-Learning Phase II Fiber Optic Network  as alluded to in my blog article entitled “GOJ to upgrade NWA's CCTV Traffic Monitoring Network to give Police more eyes in Private Places - The Da Vinci Code for Automated Traffic Ticketing System and 1984”?

Even better, the Jamaican Police might be getting using UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or Drones to basically give them additional eyes in the sky my blog article entitled “GOJ can develope UAV's as a means of giving the Police eyes in the sky - Inspiration for Aviators in Jamaica via G.I. Joe Retaliation”.

Already the Minister of National Security Peter Bunting is planning to use to replace the antiquated system of large and cumbersome Station Diaries at Police stations islandwide as announced in the article “Government embarks on pilot project to computerise police station diaries”, published Friday October 10, 2014 2:58 pm, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Also Police and Soldiers may soon be required to have specially made license plates affixed to Police Vehicles as noted in my blog article entitled “Island Traffic Authority Charging for Services - Road Traffic Act Backs ITA as HD CCTV Cameras, Rear-View Cameras, JDF, JCF”.

So how will this all work?

US Government US$400,000 for Body Cameras - How HD CCTV Camera Network, NWA PEN and GOVnet are connected

Please note that the Body Cameras are physically on the Jamaican Police or mounted on their Vehicle dashboards and would record images, Video and Audio to submission during suspicious Police activities.

This is just to record information during Police Operations. But if you want live Camera feeds, you'll need a Wireless Network. That's where the HD CCTV Camera Network comes into play.

Because it'll be using the combined Fiber Optic Network of the NWA Traffic Monitoring Network as well as the E-Learning Phase II Fiber Optic Network for CAP (Community Access Points) as described in my blog article entitled “LIME, FLOW and the $JA543-million Internet plan - Ebony and Ivory”., this will be enough Bandwidth to carry Live feeds from Police Body Cameras.

This live feed, consisting of Still Images, Video and Audio Traffic will be carried on the Fiber Optic Network Via a wireless Network. Essentially, the GOJ would have to have their own 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) Cellular Network.

This would either be a part of the HD CCTV Camera Network or part of GOVNet WAN (Wide Area Network) that Minister of Science, Technology Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell had mentioned back in November 2012.

GOVnet was to be built to interconnect Government Building and replace the need to use Paper in Parliament as noted in my blog article entitled “GOJ Parliamentarians upgraded to Microsoft Surface Tablets and GovNET Wide Area Network - Minister Paulwell efforts to reduce paper may accelerate Jamaican Tablet Adoption”.

Already since Wednesday September 10th 2014, Head of the NWA (National Works Agency), E.G. Hunter mentioned that they're doing work on building such a Network called a  PEN (Public Emergency Network) as stated in my blog article entitled “National Work Agency building islandwide Public Emergency Network - Early indications of GOVNet WAN and ITA-run Automated Traffic Ticketing System”.

According to his statements in Parliament on that day, he made mention of a Telecom Provider that was contracted to build this PEN and that it was being done for free - implying that it was being paid for by the Government.

So it's becoming clearer with each announcement.

If there are plans to have live feeds from Police in action relayed to the Ministry of National Security or the Prime Minister, then GOVnet, which may well consist of a HD CCTV Camera Network and NWA's PEN, will undoubtedly have a Wireless Network component, possibly 4G LTE in nature or existing as a MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator).

This PEN may actually be the HD CCTV Camera Network and being as it for the GOJ, may also be a part of GOVNet. Truly, the PEN is mightier than the Sword.



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