Mysore/Mysuru: The city Police have finally begun a serious crackdown on traffic violators who have more than five pending traffic violation cases. Armed with data on their smartphones, the Police are clamp-locking two-wheelers and four-wheelers at important parking zones. 

Under the ‘Operation Wheel Lock’, main parking places in city like D. Devaraj Urs Road, Sayyaji Rao Road, Ashoka Road, Dhanvantri Road and other roads are surveyed by jurisdictional Police teams and the details of all parked vehicles are entered into their Blackberries and hand-held devices. 

If the vehicle has violated traffic rules, the details are shown in the devices and if the vehicle has violated rules more than five times, the wheels are locked. Teams of Policemen locking the vehicles were found in Central Business District this morning. 

Each team comprises an ASI or a Sub-Inspector, a Constable and a home guard. While the constable reads the vehicle number, the ASI enters the details in the Blackberry. If there are more than five violations, the home guard is asked to lock the wheels. These teams are supported by PCR and Garuda vehicles that go on patrolling around the city. 

“The lock is removed only if the vehicle owner pays on-the-spot fine and clears at least 50 percent of the fine amount with a promise that he will pay the fine in a day or two. Otherwise, we will take the vehicle to the Police Station and the vehicle will not be released unless the full fine amount for all the fines is paid,” a Police officer told Star of Mysore.

Vehicle wheels are locked only if violations cross five times. “If there are one or two violations, we will paste a notice on the seat asking the vehicle owner to come to the jurisdictional Police Station to pay the fine,” he added.  

The information regarding violations is collated at the Centralised Automated Command Centre located at City Police Commissioner’s Office. Violations are caught in CCTV cameras put up across the city. The data is collated and fed into all the Blackberry and hand-held devices and all the Police staff across all Police stations holding such devices can access the information. 

When the Police enters the vehicle’s registration number on their Blackberry device, the device shows the previous traffic offences committed by the vehicle owner such as moving on a one-way, helmetless riding, signal jumping, not wearing seat belt, talking over phone while driving, etc. for which they had not paid the fines. Now they have to pay the fines for the previous traffic violations along with the present one to get the vehicle released. 

The operation will not be limited to main parking areas in city but will also be spread across other areas. “Most violators think that they will not be caught after violation. We are locking the wheels of violating cars and jeeps too. This is an only way we can bring the offenders to book.  We have chosen a Sunday because generally people come for shopping on main roads,”  a Police officer said.