HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad traffic police have called for the use of technology to snap all traffic-related incidents to avoid a Delhi-type ugly incident in the city. The footage of a Delhi cop hitting a woman with a brick, right in front of her child, for demanding a receipt has sent shockwaves across the nation.
Commenting on the horrifying episode, Jitender, additional commissioner of police (traffic), Hyderabad City, said, “Earlier, there used to be a number of such incidents in Hyderabad but now, we have started citizen-friendly traffic enforcement, with cashless enforcement. About 80 per cent of our challans are electronic. The number of ugly incidents has come down drastically after we started this project.”
Discounting the possibility of such incidents taking place in the city, he explained, “We have sensitized our officers to be very polite, but firm with the citizens. In addition to this, we have also started the concept of body-worn cameras, which has helped in reducing this kind of problems. We have already purchased 100 body-worn cameras out of which 20 to 25 are active. We are in the process of installing the others as well and training our officers accordingly.”
Much like the city police, their Cyberabad counterparts have also taken the issue seriously and are banking on technology. “There are occasional cases of one or two officers not behaving properly with the public, and when it is brought to our notice, we conduct an inquiry. If there is evidence of wrongdoing, we take departmental action,” said Avinash Mohanty, DCP (traffic).
“In order to punish someone, we should have proof that an officer has misbehaved. Most of the time, people also tend to exaggerate. So, we are trying to capture as much as possible on camera . For every enforcement, we are trying to have camera footage so that every single conversation is recorded and one cannot level allegations,” Mohanty said.