Surveillance

CCTV fails to aid HK acid attack investigations

By Kelly Ng | 10 June 2009

A Hong Kong police chief has denied that installing more CCTV cameras will bring an end to the recent spat of acid attacks in the city’s dense shopping area.

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“I will not be recommending the addition of more cameras. No matter how many more units you install, there will always be areas that are out of range,” Hong Kong Police Crime Prevention Bureau’s Superintendant, Mark E. Medwecki, told Asian Security Review today (Wednesday June 10 2009).

The best prevention method for building owners in the vicinity is to tighten access control measures, said Mr Medwecki.

According to Leung Ka-ming, Senior Superintendent of Kowloon West District, where the acid attacks took place, the resolution image quality of the surveillance CCTV footage from the current CCTV system was too low because the footage was captured in low light. Experts and a local university are helping to brighten the images before the police can use them for investigative purposes.

Monday’s (8 June 2009) attack was the third of its kind in six months. A bottle of acid was thrown from the top of a building at the intersection of Nelson Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street in Mong Kok, leaving 24 people with serious burns.

The last two attacks were in the same area – one on 16 May, which injured 30, and the other in December, which took with 46 victims. After these attacks, two cameras were installed just hours before Monday’s attack.