City Police back to taking photographs to book traffic violators

Mysuru: In an intensified drive against traffic offenders, the City Police have reinforced a system, tasking the Traffic Policemen to capture the photo of traffic offenders at traffic signals on their cell phone camera.

It has been a fortnight since the old system is back, with new ACP Shivashankar assuming charge of Traffic wing in city. The men in white and khaki, the uniform worn by those in Traffic Police Stations, unlike their law and order counterparts in full khaki uniform, should not just click the photos, but share them with the jurisdictional Police Stations to facilitate further action.

With the incorporation of technology in identifying and tracking traffic offenders through the help of Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) cameras installed at 52 traffic signals in the city, that are connected to the Traffic Automation Centre at City Police Commissioner’s Office on Mirza Road in Nazarbad, most Traffic Policemen were offloaded from the very task, restricting themselves to regulating traffic movement. Some were indulging in browsing cellphones at a corner whiling away time, that was often noticed through the CCTV cameras installed for keeping a vigil on traffic violations.

Waking up before anybody takes notice, those on traffic duty have been instructed to record violations like defective number plates, fake number plates, signal jump, triple riding, helmetless riding, riding vehicles without headlight, to keep them engaged in duty, as per the directions of ACP (Traffic) Shivashankar.

Another innovative measure is, interchanging of duty points. Those deputed at Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa Circle (Metropole Circle) should walk down to nearby Dasappa Circle and vice-versa, after every three hours, to check the men from stagnating at one spot.

It may be mentioned that, 59 Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) cameras have been installed at various points in the city, along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) cameras. The images of violations captured on these cameras are scanned and uploaded to the server and notice is dispatched to the mobile phone or residential address of the offenders, along with the details of past violations, if any. Those without mobile numbers, will be traced by Traffic Automation Centre, functioning at the Police Commissioner’s Office premises.

In all, 13 Policemen in different cadres, with hands-on training in technical know-how, have been provided with eight systems at Automation Centre that functions 24×7. The Policemen deputed here work in different shifts — 6 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 10 pm and 10 pm to 6 am. The violations caught on the monitor of computer screens, will be zoomed to read the number plate and initiate further action to track  down the violators.