The Russian city of St. Petersburg is equipping thousands of city surveillance cameras with software that will let police track crowds by focusing on characteristics such as skin color and ethnicity.
About 8,000 of the city’s 102,000 CCTV cameras will feature so-called ethnicity-recognition software designed to monitor migrants to the city, the Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported Thursday.
Oleg Kapitanov, the head of St. Petersburg’s Committee for Interethnic Relations, told Kommersant the monitoring program from an unidentified vendor was developed to combat the “formation of ethnic enclaves” and will allow for the adoption of “timely preventative measures to prevent social tension” in the region.
About 43% of St. Petersburg residents assessed the state of interethnic relations in the city as positive, according to the newspaper. City officials signed a deal to use ethnic-recognition software at the end of 2024 as part of its Safe City program.
“The functionality will allow for more accurate forecasting of the need for resources to ensure order and security during mass events, and optimize the involvement of volunteers and law enforcement officers who speak different languages,” officials with the city’s Information Technology & Communications Committee told Kommersant.
Officials with the Interior Ministry last year told the newspaper that 6.2 million foreigners were living in Russia, with most coming from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
There has been some pushback for the city’s decision to use the monitoring software. Valery Fadeyev, the head of Russia’s Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, told Kommersant that St. Petersburg police already know the location of ethnic enclaves.
“In Russia, nationality is not even indicated in the passport, and suddenly some television cameras will determine what nationality a person belongs to,” said Mr. Fadeyev, who called the surveillance program “degrading to human dignity.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.