Japanese police to set up 1,000 security cameras in quake-hit areas to fight crime

Tokyo: Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) on Friday said it will install around 1,000 security cameras to prevent burglaries and other crimes in the quake-hit areas in central Japan, local media reported.

The NPA as well as Ishikawa and other prefectural police forces will contribute about 600 cameras, while the agency plans to procure the remaining 400 using 135 million yen (about $915,000) from reserve funds in its fiscal 2023 budget, Kyodo News reported.

The agency said that it had received of 32 reports of crime including burglaries at evacuated homes and thefts in evacuation centers in the hardest-hit prefecture of Ishikawa as of Wednesday evening, Xinhua news agency reported.

Police have already increased the number of security cameras in the cities of Wajima and Suzu, which were severely damaged by a series of strong quakes of up to 7.6 magnitude on New Year's Day this year, it added.

In Ishikawa, a total of 41,834 houses were damaged in the earthquake, while the number of evacuees has topped 14,000, according to a prefectural tally released Thursday.