Police aim to replace DVDs with digital image storage
Security chief Chris Tang on Tuesday said the police want to build a digital platform to store images and videos with evidential or intelligence value, instead of using DVDs. The official told a Legco security panel meeting that it would be more efficient and less labour-intensive to upload materials to an e-platform than to store them on DVDs. Lawmakers, including Chow Man-kong from the election committee, said it is time to go digital. "A friend of mine wanted to give the police a USB memory stick that contains dash camera footage to lodge a complaint on traffic matters, but they couldn't do that and were asked to submit a DVD. They were shocked," he said. The official said the system will cost HK$359 million - down from the HK$390 million previously estimated - and should be available in 2026, if Legco approves the funding. Tang said the platform would not be equipped with artificial intelligence or facial recognition capabilities, but those could be added later. "We agree that incorporating AI programmes to our Centralised Digital Image Platform will help us investigate cases. We will deal with it at the next stage," he said. "We just need the money, the technology is already here and it can be added [to our platform] easily. I believe it's something that has to be done in future." The police also want to develop a new personnel information system, which will cost HK$142 million. The legislature's finance committee will scrutinise the two funding requests.