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Good practice Imported

Mauritius Safe City — Nationwide Facial-Recognition Surveillance Without Independent Oversight

Mauritius · Port Louis · See the Mauritius profile · See the Port Louis profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 89% 33/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Mauritius built a nationwide facial-recognition and licence-plate camera network for policing, but an undisclosed contract, a national-security data exemption, and missing footage in a high-profile murder case have raised serious accountability doubts.

~4,000
CCTV cameras
300
Traffic/plate cameras
US$8.7 million
Annual operating cost (2025)
US$455-456 million over 20 years
Total financing
>95%
Vendor-reported facial-recognition accuracy
Mauritius Safe City — Nationwide Facial-Recognition Surveillance Without Independent Oversight Mauritius Safe City — Nationwide Facial-Recognition Surveillance Without Independent Oversight

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Mauritius Police Force / Ministry of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications
Period
2017-ongoing
Keywords
policing, surveillance, facial recognition, public safety

Context

Mauritius's Safe City Project, built by Huawei and Mauritius Telecom and financed by a China Exim Bank loan, links about 4,000 CCTV and 300 traffic/plate cameras to police facial-recognition and ANPR since 2019.

Results

Huawei claims 95%+ facial-recognition and 99%+ plate-recognition accuracy (vendor-reported, not independently verified); annual operating cost is about US$8.7M on US$455-456M in 20-year financing. Contract terms were withheld from the National Audit Office, Safe City data is exempt from oversight under Section 44 of the Data Protection Act, and footage went missing in the high-profile 2020 Kistnen murder investigation.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Mauritius Police Force Command, Control and Communication Centre, Huawei / Mauritius Telecom technical operators

Conditions for success

  • independent audit access to contract terms and performance data
  • removal of the blanket national-security exemption from oversight

Common failure modes

  • contract terms withheld from the National Audit Office
  • relevant footage reported missing in a high-profile murder investigation
  • awarded via unsolicited bid without public tender

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