COIMBATORE: Personnel from Coimbatore City Armed Reserve Police will have body-worn cameras from now while escorting prisoners to and from courts to prisons. City police Commissioner V Balakrishnan distributed 24 body-worn cameras to the city armed reserve police personnel on Tuesday.
He also inaugurated the CCTV camera facilities installed in four vehicles being used for escorting prisoners for court proceedings.
“We have provided 24 body-worn cameras to our city-armed reserve police. They have to wear it while escorting prisoners to and from the courts and record their movements. They have been using 12 vehicles to escort prisoners and CCTV has been installed in four of them. The remaining vehicles will be fitted with CCTVs soon and the footage will be frequently checked by the senior police officials,” the commissioner said.
“Transporting prisoners is one of the riskiest jobs for the armed reserve police. Prisoners may try to escape from the police vehicle or try to attack the police inside the vehicle. The static cameras inside the vehicles and the body-worn cameras will help the police department record the prisoners’ activities during the escort,” Balakrishnan added.
On the sideline of the programme, the commissioner introduced a disaster management team formed by the city police. As per sources, the team has been formed with 60 police personnel headed by two sub-inspectors. They were trained in rescue operations and the required equipment were also provided to them. The team has been launched ahead of the northeast monsoon and they will engage in rescue operations at the water logging areas during the monsoon, sources said.