Smart City Albania: what we know about the 5,000 AI cameras, the cost and the contract
Smart City is the Albanian government's programme for camera surveillance and traffic control, implemented by the State Police. Below is what has been publicly reported, with sources.
Financing
According to reports, the project is financed mainly through a loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, with part of it as a grant. The reported cost is about USD 118.5 million. Tirana Times writes that this is nearly double the initial plan of about USD 60 million and frames the increase as a transparency problem.
What is being installed
Parliamentary documents cited by the media list:
| Component | Reported quantity |
|---|---|
| Automatic number plate recognition cameras (ANPR/ALPR) | 2,239 |
| PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) traffic cameras | 2,602 |
| Body-worn cameras for police officers | 3,816 |
| Smart radars | 100 |
| Traffic sensors | 100 |
The Ministry of Interior has publicly spoken of about 5,000 intelligent cameras in 20 cities. Figures from different sources do not match exactly, so we present them as "reported".
Who is building it
The agreement was signed with Presight AI, an analytics company based in the United Arab Emirates. Human rights advocates have criticised the choice of supplier and the expansion of surveillance in general.
Where things stand
In July 2026 the Prime Minister visited the Smart City Command and Control Centre and said the system will gradually be extended across the whole country. According to him, the body-camera component is still in progress.
Open questions
- Where exactly are the cameras? There is no public register of locations. That is why we are building this map.
- How long is plate data kept? The retention period for ANPR data has not been made public.
- Has a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) been carried out? Albania's Law No. 124/2024, aligned with the EU GDPR and the Law Enforcement Directive (EU) 2016/680, requires one for high-risk processing.
- Who has access? It has not been publicly clarified whether the supplier has access to the data or the systems.
Transparency about location, purpose and retention is standard practice in EU member states, and it helps public trust in safety technology. If you have seen a camera that is not on the map, report it here.
Sources
- https://www.hashtag.al/en/index.php/2025/03/11/projekti-smart-city-ne-shqiperi-118-5-milione-euro-per-kamera-ne-rruge-e-radare/
- https://rtsh.al/rti/en/smart-city-project-5000-intelligent-cameras-across-20-albanian-cities/
- https://www.tiranatimes.com/albanian-government-doubles-cost-of-smart-city-project-without-transparency/
- https://euronews.al/en/rama-smart-city-project-moves-forward-set-to-expand-nationwide/
- https://www.middleeastainews.com/p/albania-presight-smart-cities
- https://new.intellinews.com/articles/albania-shifts-to-high-tech-policing-with-expanded-use-of-security-cameras-and-surveillance-drones-402244