Faisalabad Police have launched a citywide CCTV expansion drive aimed at curbing child abductions, disappearances and harassment cases, integrating thousands of privately owned cameras into a centralized monitoring system. Under the initiative, business owners across the city, including grocery stores, petrol pumps and scrapyards, are installing new cameras or connecting existing ones to the central CCTV monitoring room.
Officials said 5,000 private cameras have already been linked in the first phase, with thousands more expected to follow as the drive continues. The move is part of a broader effort by Faisalabad Police to modernize the city’s surveillance infrastructure and strengthen real time monitoring capabilities, extending oversight beyond the police department’s own camera network to draw on privately owned devices already installed across commercial areas.
Officials said the expanded network would allow faster response to reports of missing children and help deter criminal activity in public and commercial areas. By tapping into cameras already operated by business owners, the initiative is designed to significantly increase citywide coverage without requiring the police department to fund and install an equivalent number of new devices independently.
Residents have largely welcomed the initiative, describing it as a significant step toward improving child safety and reducing crime in the city. Police officials said they expect all areas of Faisalabad to be covered under the centralized monitoring system by the end of the year, positioning the drive as part of a broader move toward technology driven policing already seen in similar surveillance expansion efforts across other Pakistani cities.
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