The Hague, 30 July 2007 by Brian van der Bol

In the Integrated Monitor Center (GMC) in The Hague six civil servants are viewing displays continuously. Checking the life in town. "We pass everything through, from urinators in public to shootings." 

From the moment a report comes in, the adrenaline rises in the GMC in The Hague. In here, all the images come in live from all the 437 cameras in the region Haaglanden. According to itself, it has the highest camera-density in The Netherlands. 

Six exceptional civil servants are staring in changing compositions - the GMC-ers are replaced after a maximum of fifty minutes because of a loss in concentration - at tens of screens. When something is going on, they contact the officers on the street. Often, security images are only viewed afterwards, when incidents have occurred. In the GMC, the images are viewed live 24 hours a day, seven days in a week. Ron Groot, coordinator of the GMC in The Hague, thinks that camera-security should be viewed as a "Sense-stimulating mean", an addition to the eyes of the officers. He sees especially an financial advantage, he makes a calculation. When he wants to protect an ambassy by people in a security-room it will cost him nine fulltime jobs a year. "Placing security cameras is an attractive alternative." The results are encouraging. In 2006 the GMC reported 4.567 incidents. From this, 1.584 people were 'live-arrested'. The number of cameras is growing steady since a successful test in the year 2000 with seventeen cameras in a red light district around the Hoefkade.  

The end is not near yet. Groot expects that the GMC will have around 500 cameras at the end of this year, also because of a cooperation with transportation-company HTM. De rising number of cameras in the region Haaglanden fits in the domestic uncontrolled growth of the past years. The exact number of cameras to maintain the public order is unknown, also by the ministry of Domestic Affairs.

Source: NRC Handelsblad, 30 July 2007