The legal requirement would apply to entities occupying at least 50 square meters of commercial space.
The Armenian parliament committee on defense and security endorsed on Friday a relevant bill drafted by the Interior Ministry and approved by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s cabinet.
Speaking during a committee meeting, Deputy Interior Minister Arpine Sargsian said the measure would make it easier for the police and other law-enforcement agencies to solve crimes committed in public places.
“In practice, there are often situations where reliable evidence can only be [obtained from] video surveillance of a particular place,” Sargsian told members of the panel.
“Experience shows that in many situations, especially in some place around which crimes are committed, there are no security cameras as a rule, which makes the work of law-enforcement bodies harder,” she said.
Another senior Interior Ministry official, Ara Fidanian, said that the mandatory CCTV cameras would help to significantly reduce the number of such crimes.
The Armenian Justice Ministry’s Personal Data Protection Agency gave a negative assessment of the bill earlier this year, warning of “significant risks to the security of personal data” and a “disproportionate restriction” of citizens’ right to privacy. Nevertheless, Justice Minister Grigor Minasian voted for the proposed requirement during a subsequent cabinet meeting.
Sargsian insisted that the surveillance cameras would not lead to privacy violations because they would be installed in public places.
Opposition members of the parliament committee were unconvinced by her assurances. Some of their pro-government colleagues also voiced misgivings. But that did not prevent the panel from recommending the bill’s passage by the National Assembly.
Armenia’s crime rate has risen considerably since the 2018 “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power. There has been a particularly sharp increase in drug trafficking cases. They more than doubled last year, according to law-enforcement authorities.