Hyderabad traffic cops to sport body cameras

Hyderabad City traffic cops could soon change their way to Singapore style of wearing body cameras during their duty time. Impressed with modern policing methods adopted in Singapore during his visit to singapore, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made several 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.Following the CM's suggestions, Hyderabad police studied policing practices in Singapore and decided to implement the body wear camera practice immediately , which essentially means cops sitting in a central control room would monitor the conversation between a traffic cop and the pupil.



Ten days ago, the city police began a project with Chandrasekhar Reddy a sub inspector of Saifabad traffic police station, who was given a camera to check its efficiency while on traffic duties. "Since I began using the camera, most traffic violators stopped dropping names of influential persons. Almost all the offenders immediately paid the fine whenever I explained about the camera and that the entire conversation was being recorded," Reddy told."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,"with the success stories, the police department is now going to implement the Rs one crore project and give body cameras to all staff in the field. "By wearing a camera, the on-duty performance of a police officer can also be monitored and the footage also works as evidence for any other circumstances in future.

The high resolution audio-visuals recorded in the camera are stored in a memory card and can be seen live from the police control room through 4G technology.Each body camera, costing Rs 1.5 lakh, would be effective even during night, Sharma said. The city police are initially planning to purchase about 100 cameras.the usage of body cameras will also bring transparency and accountability among police and the citizens."

After the body wear camera project, they are also planning to install cameras in all the patrolling vehicles and all of them will be connected to the main CCTV in the control room," Mahender Reddy added.