Thirteen surveillance cameras have been installed in the Western District on Hong Kong Island, after 15 cameras were installed in Mong Kok in March as part of a pilot project, police said.

Police announced the expansion of their CCTV network on Thursday after officers used footage captured by the newly installed cameras to identify and arrest a 54-year-old man who allegedly broke into a currency exchange shop on Des Voeux Road West on Monday. The shop is located about 500 metres from the central government liaison office.

Alexander Yung, an inspector with the Western Criminal Investigation Department, said the suspect was also linked to a break-in at another currency exchange office on Marble Road in North Point on Saturday.

He said HK$52,000 (US$6,672) worth of foreign currency was stolen from the two stores.

“To avoid being caught, the suspect changed clothes before and after the raids to conceal his identity,” Yung said.

He attributed the quick resolution of the two cases to newly installed cameras in the West Precinct as well as cameras in nearby stores that helped officers track down and arrest the suspect.

After collecting evidence, police arrested the 54-year-old man on Wednesday. Officers also confiscated clothing that the suspect was wearing during the crimes.

Yung said preliminary investigations indicated the suspect was in financial difficulty.

He was arrested on suspicion of burglary – an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison under the Theft Ordinance.

As of Thursday afternoon, he was still being held for questioning.

The 15 surveillance cameras installed in Mong Kok in March are part of a broader plan to install 2,000 cameras across the city by the end of 2024, with a focus on densely populated areas and high-crime neighborhoods. Police have not disclosed how many cameras have been installed across the city since the pilot project began.

Using cameras in Mong Kok, police also identified two men from mainland China who allegedly installed a card reader and a fake keypad with a wireless transmitter on a cash deposit machine at a bank in the district. One of the suspects was arrested at a border checkpoint on April 30, while the other was put on a wanted list.

In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Security Minister Chris Tang Ping-keung announced that facial recognition technology will be used in police surveillance cameras in the future.

“I think this is a natural trend. In fact, it is already being applied in many other jurisdictions,” Tang said.

The former police chief assured the public that the installation of additional surveillance cameras in the city would not infringe on citizens’ privacy.

In the first six months of this year, 5,156 cases of violent crime were recorded in the city, an increase of 8.3 percent from 4,759 reports in the same period in 2023. The number of burglary reports increased by 19.6 percent to 684 between January and June 2024, compared to 572 cases in the same period last year.