Zhitikara is located in the southwestern part of the Kostanay region, with a population of 35,000 people. The city is just 30 kilometers from the Russian border and 217 kilometers from the regional center. Despite its geographical distance from the country's center, Zhitikara is ahead of many large cities, including the regional center Kostanay, in terms of embracing technological progress. In recent years, the number of street surveillance cameras has increased from 3 to 204, and the first panic button for police assistance in the region has been installed. In September, Zhitikara became the fourth city in the country to implement artificial intelligence technology into its video surveillance systems.
Internet and Cameras
Active technological changes began in Zhitikara in 2017 when Tengiz Alimbaev visited his parents.
“I am a native of Zhitikara, grew up here, graduated from school, and then moved to Almaty for my studies,” says Tengiz Alimbaev. “I graduated from KBTU with a degree in engineering and started working at the largest oil extraction company in Kazakhstan, where I currently hold the position of design department manager. I happened to live and work on a large oil and gas project in London for two years. When I returned, I visited my parents and noticed that the internet was very slow. At that time, the city only had access to an old technology for data transmission over copper lines, with a speed of eight megabits per second for downloads and one megabit per second for uploads. I recognized the city's need for high-speed internet.”
There was an unused fiber-optic line from JSC “Transtelecom” in Zhitikara, and Tengiz contacted the company to propose a partnership. In 2017, he founded LLP “Zhitikara Telecom,” which focused on designing, financing, and installing a fiber-optic network throughout the city. Within a year, high-speed internet was brought to half of the city's apartment buildings and administrative buildings. In 2018, the other half was connected, and a year later, some areas of the private sector were covered:
“In 2020, I started looking for other useful, socially significant projects that could be implemented based on our lines,” says Tengiz Alimbaev. “When creating the project, we made a double reserve for fibers, allocating 50% of the capacity for the internet and leaving 50% free.”
The decision was made to implement a street video surveillance system; at that time, there were only three cameras in the city, and now there are 204. They were installed in partnership with the akimat: LLP “Zhitikara Telecom” purchased and installed the equipment, while the city covered the service costs. The locations for installation were determined by the police and prosecutor's office staff, based on an analysis of the criminal situation. The entire massive video stream traffic is transmitted via fiber-optic lines to the local police department's server; this project could not have been realized on such a scale without this infrastructure. The servers, video wall, controls, and surveillance consoles are managed by the city, in the Operational Management Center.
In 2021, Zhitikara became the first in the region to install a panic button for calling the police. There are also video cameras near the button, allowing the operator to see both the person calling and the surrounding situation. The device is located in a busy part of the city near a mini-market and records those who vandalize, disturb the peace, litter, and consume alcohol in public places. Once, a witness's call through the panic button even helped detain a suspect in a kiosk robbery. The implementation of this project was also handled by “Zhitikara Telecom.”
Artificial Intelligence and Safety
For the past four years, Tengiz Alimbaev states that his company has been testing various software with elements of artificial intelligence. As the number of cameras increased, analyzing the video stream became more challenging.
In September of this year, Zhitikara's cameras were connected to a platform capable of recognizing faces, vehicle license plates, and performing other types of analytics in real-time. It is integrated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ databases “Qamqor” and the information system KIREB (a complex of information resources for unified security) of the General Prosecutor's Office. Therefore, it can autonomously notify about matches with databases and manage the video monitoring process more centrally. Police officers have been trained to work with the system.
The police report that the number of offenses detected with the help of cameras is steadily increasing, and the introduction of the artificial intelligence platform further optimizes the work of the officers. In 2020, Zhitikara recorded 492 criminal offenses, with 21 of them identified thanks to surveillance cameras. By 2023, out of 236 criminal offenses, cameras helped identify 37.
In the first 10 months of 2024, video surveillance assisted in 32 out of 159 criminal cases.
“There has been a 27% reduction in registered crimes compared to the same period in 2023,” says Alibek Shandalinov, head of the Zhitikara police department and Zhitikara district, police colonel. “The presence of cameras disciplines residents and has a significant preventive effect. The cameras primarily capture theft of personal property, traffic violations, acts of vandalism, and damage to city property. Connecting the video surveillance system to the artificial intelligence platform greatly eases the operators' work. If a public safety violation occurs, the system automatically sends a notification.”
The video surveillance and video analytics platform using artificial intelligence is already operational in Almaty, Shymkent, and Atyrau, making Zhitikara the fourth city in the country to adopt it, surpassing other larger urban areas.
“This project is unique; it shows that it is not necessary to be a large city to gain access to digitization and modern technologies,” says Damir Zharimbetov, executive director of Target AI Limited, the creator of the video surveillance and video analytics platform using artificial intelligence. “For Zhitikara, we implemented a full-fledged video monitoring system with the same functionality as in megacities. In the future, as part of scaling the project, we plan to integrate the system with tablets and badges for police officers, which will enhance the mobility and efficiency of patrol services. Currently, Zhitikara's level of safety is comparable to cities like Almaty, Atyrau, and Shymkent. This emphasizes that advanced solutions can be implemented regardless of the size of the city.”
Prospects
“This is not the limit; one might even say it is only the beginning of our work,” says Aslan Amantaevich Zhanyspayev, akim of the Zhitikara district. Zhitikara is currently testing the “Safe School” and “Safe Yard” projects. Here, in addition to the city cameras, police officers have access to school and yard surveillance cameras, allowing for quicker responses in cases of apartment burglaries, fights, alcohol consumption, and vehicle damage in yards.
“If the pilot proves successful, and I am confident there will be a positive effect, we will scale it up,” says Aslan Amantaevich. “Next year, we plan to install cameras with facial recognition in areas where waste containers are located because we have instances of residents disposing of regular household waste in areas designated for bulky items. Then we will move to children's and sports playgrounds, as sometimes children and teenagers damage small architectural forms and swings. We want to use these innovative tools to comprehensively address issues and build a safe, comfortable, and clean city. So that people enjoy living here, and the youth do not feel the need to leave. I see the development of our region only through industrial growth, and for that, it is essential that when investors come to our city, they understand that projects can be realized here.”
Zhitikara is home to a chrysotile asbestos deposit, one of the largest reserves of the mineral in the world. Here, JSC “Kostanay Minerals” operates as the only enterprise in Kazakhstan for the extraction and enrichment of chrysotile asbestos ores, and LLP “Komarovskoye Mining Company” is