DOHA: A department of the Interior Ministry is busy identifying public places, including roads, where surveillance cameras are to be installed to ensure public security, said a senior police official.
Brigadier Nasser Jaber Al Nuaimi said that experience suggested that so far at whichever public spots CCTV cameras had been fitted, they had helped reduce crime to a large extent.
A law was passed in 2009 paving the way for installing surveillance cameras in public places, including malls and roads, Al Nuaimi, who is the Director of Capital Police, said in an interview to local Arabic daily Al Raya published yesterday.
“We have been able to catch many criminals with the help of CCTV cameras,” the official said. The security systems department is identifying public places across the country where surveillance cameras are to be introduced.
According to Al Nuaimi, at least 10 complaints about witchcraft practitioners taking people for a ride were lodged in 2012. Incidents of cheating are on the rise as well and the victims are mostly innocent people.
Citing an example, the official said: “If you trust someone who promises to double your QR50,000 in a few months and hand him the sum, then who is to blame?” The official said citing another instance of cheating that a person who was on a visit here gave a post-dated cheque to a trader and bought goods worth QR200,000.
The man fled the country and after a complaint was filed “we tried to track him through the Interpol”, he said. The official said that there had been considerable increase in the number of complaints about cheques being issued by people without sufficient balance in their bank accounts.
“I believe that there is a lack of awareness about the laws regulating cheques.
“I think many people just issue cheques and are not aware that the laws stipulate severe punishment for issuing cheques that bounce,” he said.
About the units that issue permits for people to sell gold, he said Al Sadd Police Station and the Capital Police have such units. One needs to produce purchase vouchers to seek permits from these units to sell gold or ornaments in the Qatari market.
The Peninsula
