Five hundred cameras are expected to be activated during the initial phase of the National Closed-Circuit Television surveillance programme dubbed 'JamaicaEye', which will be launched today.

This public-private sector partnership is designed to allow citizens and business operators with cameras overlooking public spaces to input their feeds into two monitoring centres. The feeds will provide useful footage in relation to disaster and criminal activity and they will be monitored by a team of security professionals.

The national security ministry has already placed cameras in Kingston, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, May Pen, Mandeville and Negril. Two hundred government-owned cameras are projected to be complemented by 300 from citizens.

According to Minister of National Security Robert Montague, the full rollout of the project would cost nearly $3 billion over two years. He noted that JamaicaEye aligns with the ministry's five-pillar crime-reduction strategy.

"The ministry is going on an aggressive campaign to get private camera feeds, as this will be a major step forward for the country. Jamaica is one of the few countries that has brought the use of private cameras to function in this capacity," said Montague.

He added: "We have to take this approach, because, otherwise, the cost would be too expensive for Government alone. To outfit Kingston alone would have cost the Government over J$1 billion."