Kazakhstan Wants the Police to Be More Transparent

All the offices of the law enforcement officials in Kazakhstan must be equipped with a video surveillance system before December 1, according to Saken Sarsenov, vice minister of internal affairs.

The initiative requires 16,658 cameras to be installed all over the country. As the official noted, the idea of equipping penitentiary institutions and police offices with video surveillance cameras was announced by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev during his national address on September 1, 2020.

«The police across the nation have been installing such video surveillance. This task is going to be completed by the end of this year with 16,658 cameras installed in total. As a result, police offices will operate under the permanent control that should make it more transparent for people and help to decrease number of complaints about impropriate behavior of the police officers,» he said.

Particularly, the move is aimed at detectives, investigators and other law enforcement officials who work in close contact with regular citizens.

In addition, 33,966 video surveillance cameras will be installed in penitentiary institutions. It is expected that twenty-eight of them will start to operate cameras this year because things aren’t going well out there. All other penitentiary institutions will be covered by the initiative by the end of 2023.

All these cameras should be anti-vandal with no options to take them down or destroy with one’s bare hands, Sarsenov noted.

A similar approach was announced this summer by Askhat Aitmagambetov, minister of education. While speaking at the cabinet he said that all schools in Kazakhstan are equipped with a video surveillance system. However, just 55% of those cameras have met the proper requirements.