CHENNAI: Dinakaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (North) says CCTV cameras can be a handy tool for the police to control crimes. Excerpts
What kind of crimes you hope to deter or detect through CCTV cameras?
CCTV cameras are mainly for prevention and detection of any crime and accidents as well. It also serves as a tool to overcome controversies. Recently, two men who were involved in a hand fight on the street, blamed each other for starting the fight with a weapon. Through CCTV camera, we found it was ‘man A’ who had initiated the assault. It also works as a clear evidence to nab the suspects and view the number plates of vehicles involved in crime.
Is CCTV footage accepted as proof in trial courts and has it helped in speeding up trials?
Courts do accept CCTV camera footage, unless they are edited. If the timeline shown on the video does not continue in the right order, the court might reject the footage as evidence. Even in Arumugasamy commission formed to probe the death of former Chief minister J Jayalalithaa, officials are collecting CCTV footage and when it is deleted or edited, it causes suspicion.
What kind of punishments can be imposed if CCTV footage is abused, violating privacy of people? Especially if the victim is a women and harassed by perverts who stalk them?
If the victim who was threatened or blackmailed with CCTV footage lodges a complaint at the police station, necessary action against the person under suitable sections, like threatening, cheating and intruding into privacy will be taken. In residential areas, CCTV cameras help in preventing unlawful entry of persons who disturb the peace of residents. If the landowner himself threatens, let’s say girls, with video footage, the landowner will be curbed with iron fist.
Do all the cameras come with DVRs or we use wire transmission like in the Elephant Gate police station?
Videos will be shared with wire transmission only at the main traffic junctions, so that we can alert any road block or roko to the concerned patrol police. In other places which do not report too many problems, there will be CCTVs with DVRs and we will collect the footage later, if a crime happens. In places like GNT road and ECR, we are installing ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Reading) cameras, since in places like these, vehicles ply very fast and if there is an hit and run case, number plate reading is a very important factor.
Are videos encrypted during transmission to avoid illegitimate people accessing it?
We have not gone so far as to encrypt the videos since there has been no instance of hacking into government data. We may go for encryption later since we have started the campaign (to install CCTV cameras) just now.
Don’t you think criminals will get even more smarter and find a way to bypass the CCTV cameras?
After the campaign, some miscreants were seen covering their faces with kerchiefs, helmets and playing with fake number plates. In incidents like these, we use conventional methods. When persons cover their faces with the mask, the police are to trained to recognise the men with their bike and shirt. If the number plates are fake, the original registration number will be tracked and the changing of the bike from person to person will be tracked.
Since many of the CCTV cameras are sponsored by businesses men and companies, won’t there be conflict of interest when police happens to deal cases related to them?
Sponsoring under CSR activity or lending a helping hand for the public will not affect the action taken against the individual or the company. We have not mentioned the name of the sponsor in the cameras. All are equal before the law.