Rostov-on-Don Expands Its Safe City Network
Rostov-on-Don is upgrading its municipal video surveillance network by replacing 55 obsolete analog cameras with modern digital units and installing 26 additional cameras.
Five of the new cameras will be dedicated to detecting wildfires, while another 21 will monitor areas with large public gatherings. In addition, 13 cameras have already been installed near the Tachanka Memorial.
New High-Tech Eyes on the City
Rostov-on-Don is transforming its video surveillance network into an intelligent public safety system designed to improve both the speed and quality of emergency response. In a city of more than one million residents, emergency situations can now be identified much faster through camera monitoring. Modern equipment delivers high-quality video for emergency responders and law enforcement agencies, while analytics software quickly retrieves the relevant footage from archived recordings.
Particular emphasis is being placed on environmental safety. Using cameras for the early detection of landscape fires has become a necessity in Russia's hot southern regions. Across Rostov Region, 290 cameras connected to the Bezopasny Gorod (Safe City) platform already perform this function.
"The system automatically detects forest, industrial, and landscape fires during both daytime and nighttime operations. A panoramic camera equipped with specialized early fire detection software and installed on a cellular communications tower has a viewing radius of 30 kilometers and completes a full 360-degree patrol every 10 minutes," said Sergei Bodryakov, Deputy Governor of Rostov Region.
A Network of Safe Cities
Major cities around the world increasingly rely on computer vision and cloud computing to manage urban infrastructure. Rostov's Bezopasny Gorod (Safe City) platform already operates six types of video analytics, including license plate recognition and suspicious object detection. The city is continuing to expand the network by connecting newly upgraded cameras to the platform.
The Bezopasny Gorod (Safe City) platform was launched in 2018. In 2023, it unified camera networks operated by multiple government agencies, including environmental authorities. Today, the Safe City hardware and software complex includes 6,225 cameras, of which 710 are equipped with analytics algorithms. Another 275 surveillance cameras will be added this year. According to regional authorities, the platform has cut emergency response times in half across Rostov Region while increasing crime detection rates by a factor of 3.5.
Across Russia, more than one million cameras now operate within the Bezopasny Gorod program and regional surveillance systems. Roughly one-third of them are connected to intelligent biometric identification platforms.
Moscow remains the country's leader in digital urban infrastructure, with more than 270,000 cameras that helped solve over 10,000 crimes in 2023 alone. Novosibirsk Region continues expanding its analytics capabilities for locating missing people, while AI-assisted surveillance helped apprehend 2,800 offenders there during 2025. By 2030, Russia plans to expand the nationwide network to five million smart cameras.
New Data Infrastructure
Today, Rostov's municipal surveillance system requires a new storage platform capable of retaining video recordings for 30 days. Rather than continuing costly purchases of municipal servers, city lawmakers have proposed using certified data centers operated by Russian providers. Such an approach would allow computing capacity to scale as additional cameras come online while enabling the deployment of machine learning algorithms without replacing existing camera hardware.
The impact of Rostov's surveillance network can already be seen today. The cameras are no longer simply witnesses to incidents – they are becoming digital inspectors capable of identifying potential threats before they escalate.
