As part of the government’s elaborate plans to usher in new-age policing in Hyderabad, city traffic police might soon go the Singapore way and put on body cameras while on duty.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao during his August visit to Singapore got impressed with modern policing methods adopted in there, and made quite a few suggestions for the police force, and body cameras for cops was one gadget that caught the fancy of director general of police (DGP) Anurag Sharma.
Hyderabad police followed the CM’s suggestions and studied policing practices in Singapore and make a decision to implement the body wear camera practice without more ado, which essentially means cops sitting in a central control room would monitor the conversation between a denizen traffic and a cop.
Chandrasek har Reddy , a sub inspector of Saifa bad traffic police station, is the one who was given a camera to check its efficacy while performing traffic duties. “Since I began using the camera, most traffic violators stopped dropping names of influential persons. Al most all the offenders immediately paid the fine whenever I explained about the camera and that the entire conversation was being recorded,” Reddy told the media.
“Even during Ganesh immersion procession near Ambedkar statue, I was able to regulate traffic with just three constables as all truck drivers left the area after immersion and obeyed the orders when told that the vehicle registration number has been recorded in the camera,” the SI added.
The police department buoyed with similar victory stories in a different place is eager to implement the Rs one crore project and provide body cameras to all field staff.
According to DGP Anurag Sharma, “By wearing a camera, the on-duty performance of a police officer can be monitored and the footage can also work as evidence. Our aim is to expand the body camera project to the entire field-level police per sonnel soon”.
The high resolution audio-visuals make a recording in the camera and are stored in a memory card which can be seen live from the police control room through 4G technology.
The cost of each body camera is Rs 1.5 lakh, is effective even during night, Sharma said. At the start, the city police are planning to purchase about 100 cameras after the pilot study is completed.
“After the body wear cameras, we are also planning to install cameras in all the pa trolling vehicles and all of them will be connected to the main CCTV surveillance monitoring facility at the control room,” added the Hyderabad police commissioner Mahender Reddy.