Those awaiting the day when they can finally see this guy patrol the streets should greet with enthusiasm the news that several of Bangkok’s “dummy cops” have been retrofitted with crime-stopping cameras.
On Tuesday, Police Maj Gen Vorasak Nopsittiporn, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, announced that dummy police officers—also known as “Ja Choey” or “Sgt. Still”—will be retrofitted with closed-circuit TV cameras, allowing the fake cops to catch real crimes.
The cameras, which will transmit data to a traffic control system via Wi-Fi, have software capable of recognizing both license plate numbers and drivers’ faces. Police plan to use these capabilities to catch drivers engaged in illegal lane changes and other traffic violations.
The Bangkok Post reports that only 10 of these cameras will be installed initially, though more may follow, depending on how the test run performs.
