“Smart City Albania”, a major step toward strengthening public safety
Implementation has begun on the “Smart City Albania” project, one of the most advanced technological investments in the field of public safety. The project aims to install an integrated system of intelligent cameras across cities, schools, roads and other public spaces. It will position Albania at the highest level of international standards for territorial monitoring and management.
During the presentation of the project, Prime Minister Edi Rama emphasized that “Smart City” is not merely a camera system, but a fundamental transformation of the capacities of the State Police, providing it with full and immediate control over the territory.
Implemented with the strategic support of the United Arab Emirates, the project is expected to deliver direct benefits for citizens, institutions and businesses, by strengthening public order, security and public trust.
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Prime Minister Edi Rama:
Greetings to everyone!
Some time ago, I paid a visit to Jordan, a country with a highly heterogeneous composition, a country hosting an extraordinarily high number of refugees, a country without comparable wealth to many others in the region and yet, as Albana also mentioned, one of the three safest countries in the world. When I spoke with several high-level representatives of that country about security, the common and immediate answer was “Smart City”, with technology from Abu Dhabi.
This is not a camera project. It is not a surveillance project based on cameras, nor on monitoring police officers through camera footage when necessary. This is a project that, from the very second it is launched and implemented, exponentially increases policing capacity in real time. It is a project that gives the State Police a “magic eye” to see the entire territory of interest in real time. It is a project that helps, in unimaginable ways until just a few years ago, to have a chief territorial inspector whose eyes are everywhere.
When we speak about real-time identification of offenders, we are not talking about identification resulting from police officers watching screens. We are talking about real-time identification by this magic eye, which sees, identifies, records and marks the offender, placing a signal and bringing it directly before the eyes of police officers. While an officer at the screen may be monitoring traffic on Kavaja Street, on that same screen the system can display a traffic violation occurring on Myslym Shyri Street, or on a road in Kamëz, or in Durrës, or in Berat, and so on. In other words, the eye of this entire system sees everywhere at the same time and simultaneously gathers all the information needed to signal a problem.
In this way, there is no need to wait for police checkpoints to detect unregistered vehicles. There is no need to wait for the General Directorate of Road Transport to collect unpaid vehicle taxes, while drivers continue to operate vehicles without paying taxes or registering them simply because if the human eye does not catch them, no one else can. All this information arrives in real time, and the Police then intervene to enforce the law based on that information.
There is no need for someone to film a police officer who fails to meet even the basic standards of communication expected of a first-grade student, because in real time the body camera of an officer arguing with a citizen transmits the situation directly to the operations room. It becomes impossible to turn cameras on and off at will, because a deactivated camera is immediately noticed. Security in schools changes fundamentally. The example of our friends from the United Arab Emirates, who very generously made this strategic technology available to us, is highly meaningful. Since this system was introduced in schools, not only have crimes of all kinds dropped drastically, but think about this: absenteeism has dropped dramatically. Yes, not only has absenteeism dropped sharply, but cheating has also fallen dramatically. And not only that, but disruptive behavior turning classrooms into playgrounds has also decreased significantly. This is because the entire system works for teachers, works for parents, works for schools and, of course, for the Ministry of Education.
The moment the State Police need to conduct any type of verification; everything is already recorded. Likewise, the second a suspicious person approaches a school gate, or when unwanted individuals loiter around schools to traffic narcotics, police officers see this in real time.
Street-level criminal elements already registered by the State Police find it impossible to go wherever they want and do whatever they want if their intent is to do harm, because they are always under police surveillance.
Naturally, this is a management challenge, without question. I fully understand the message coming from some of those who should have pushed this project forward without the time we have lost. It is normal that part of the State Police does not want this project, because it will make impossible many of the issues that today are a concern for police leadership, a concern for us and a concern for citizens.
It will be impossible for a police vehicle to be used for personal purposes, because all police vehicles will be visible to leadership. It will be impossible for a police car to be parked at someone’s home. I am talking about very simple things. It will be impossible for a police car to stop in front of a restaurant and for officers to go inside to eat lunch in uniform. Again, very simple things. I fully understand that those who did everything to delay and sabotage this project understand these realities even better than I do, because they know far more than I ever could about how many tricks and abuses can be committed while staining the uniform of the State Police.
This project supports all honest leaders and all honest police officers, first and foremost by removing all the tempting shadows of wrongdoing. Anyone who wants to evade the eyes of the State Police to do harm will have to cover themselves completely when stepping outside, otherwise they will not get anywhere. There can no longer be vehicles disappearing in unknown directions.
We have many conflicts today in our education system because teachers have one version, students another and parents yet another of what happened in the classroom. There is no need for that anymore. All three can come to the directorate, a button is pressed, and what happened is seen clearly, who did what, at the exact moment that became a point of conflict. The tragedies we have experienced in schools are linked to many factors, but certainly also to the lack of clear footage, which later makes the work of investigators and the Police extremely difficult. With this system, the school yard perimeter is monitored 24 hours a day, as if police officers were stationed on all four sides of the school.
Another very important element concerns property protection. What happens on national roads becomes far more transparent. With the management system that our dear friends from Abu Dhabi will bring to support the management team, there will be a very clear protocol. No operator in the control room can turn a blind eye, because the issue does not remain solely in their hands. As for cleanliness, we face the terrible problem of waste dumping, especially during the tourist season, along national roads. This becomes impossible. Today we may have fines, but enforcement is extremely difficult, if not impossible, because fines are individual and either someone must be caught in the act or they are never caught. This system lines everyone up on the screen. This is a revolution within the broader transformation we can achieve thanks to the blessing of advanced technology. It is a revolution that took time to arrive for many unreasonable reasons, but today, with the signing of the agreement, implementation begins. Sooner rather than later, we will start seeing results. It is certain that within two years, Albania will be among the safest countries in the world, not just safe in the sense we understand today, but safe in the sense that it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to move around Albania to do harm.
I want to sincerely thank all those who contributed to bringing this project to this point. I also want to express my deep gratitude to a great friend of Albania and Albanians, the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who gave his blessing for Albania to receive this technology.
I thank the entire extraordinary team and apologize for some procedural absurdities. But Albania is currently living through a time of absurdities. Transformations of this magnitude generate internal resistance from those accustomed to systems they exploit for personal purposes. I also want to extend special thanks to the ambassador. I have begun to find it difficult to thank ambassadors in general, but I sincerely thank the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, because he accompanied this process with great devotion and was extremely helpful.
The Government of the United Arab Emirates is a dear and trusted friend of Albania and of Albanians, Albanians in Albania and Albanians in Kosovo as well. I strongly believe that with this project, municipalities, several mayors who are present here today, will benefit enormously. Above all, all honest Albanians will benefit, all law-abiding citizens, all entrepreneurs who want to do business without fear in this country. And once again, all honest leaders and officers of the State Police will benefit. Thank you very much.