The City of Cape Town has ordered an additional 750 body-worn cameras for its law enforcement agencies, which will bring the total deployment to 3,000 in the Metro.

The rollout of bodycams started in August 2023 and has grown to 2,250 deployed in the field, spread among Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic Officers.

The In-Vehicle Camera network is also expanding, from the current 530 vehicles to 555. These cameras are fitted with Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology and printers for warrants and summons.

Together with the bodycams, they capture thousands of hours of evidence each month.

The City says to date, there have been more than 450 instances where evidence has been requested and used either for internal investigations or shared with the South African Police Service for external investigations.

The Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, says in most cases, the digital evidence supports the officers against false claims or provides evidence of suspects’ actions.

“The use of body-worn cameras protects staff and the public. More importantly, it and the various other tech solutions we’ve introduced help create a real-time operational picture to improve situational awareness and inform decision-making. We saw this used to good effect during the June 30 protests, where officers arriving on scene were able to stream live feeds to our operations centre from their mobile cameras, to augment drone and CCTV footage or provide visuals in areas without a CCTV presence. I am excited to see how we build on this into the future, to advance public safety in Cape Town.”

In addition to body-worn cameras and the in-vehicle camera network, Smith says its CCTV operations are an additional force multiplier,  which is increasingly supporting SAPS investigations.

The Metro Police Strategic Surveillance Unit (SSU) detected over 41,000 incidents between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, which resulted in 541 arrests – an 18% increase on the year before.

Among the arrests were 228 for drug possession, 21 for dealing in drugs, 91 related to traffic accidents and offences, 19 for theft out of motor vehicles and 16 for cable and/or metal theft.

In addition, the camera systems were instrumental in apprehending 452 suspects linked to alerts about suspicious vehicles, or where they were asked to be on the lookout for specific vehicles linked to criminal incidents.

Among the charges stemming from these incidents were possession of stolen or hijacked vehicles, possession of prohibited firearms, and possession of housebreaking implements and stolen property.

In the six months between January and June this year, SAPS requested to view footage in 242 cases – a 35% increase on the same period in 2025.

The case types included murder, arson, culpable homicide, armed robbery and theft out of motor vehicle incidents.

“I am incredibly heartened by the increased appetite from the South African Police Service to view our CCTV footage as a potential resource. And, while it might not provide a positive result in every case, CCTV enquiries should become par for the course in investigations. As we work to expand our network, not only of CCTV cameras but also body-worn and in-vehicle devices, the potential evidentiary benefits increase the chances of successful prosecutions.”