HYDERABAD: Since the formation of Telangana State, CCTV cameras have become an essential part of policing. Their extensive use in preventing and detecting crime has made the State a first in the country to have installed the highest number of CCTV cameras, revealed Data On Police Organisations (DOPO), which was released recently by the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
According to the data, the Telangana police installed a total of 2,75,528 CCTV cameras till January 2019, which translates into 64 per cent of all CCTV cameras installed in various parts of the country. The national capital, New Delhi, has just 5,332 cameras.
They have not just helped the police in the State to prevent crime, they were particularly handy in nabbing the accused in many sensational cases. For instance, the rape and murder of the veterinarian at Shadnagar near Hyderabad in November 2019 and the rape and murder of a nine-month-old infant in Warangal last year could be solved double quick with the help of CCTV footages. While clues from CCTV footages proved vital in connecting the four accused to the offence in the veterinarian’s case, they became a strong evidence leading to the conviction of the accused in the infant’s rape and murder case.
As of January 2019, a total of 4,27,529 CCTV cameras were installed across the country, of which 2,75,528 were installed in Telangana alone. Tamil Nadu, though a bigger State in terms of area and population when compared to Telangana, stands second with 40,112 CCTV cameras. Other big State like Maharashtra has 39,587 cameras, Madhya Pradesh has 21,206 and Andhra Pradesh has 14,770 cameras that come next in the order.
However, the Telangana police are way behind many States in terms of other aspects. Despite having the state-of-the-art Intelligence Integrated Training Academy (IITA) to train sniffer and tracker dogs at Moinabad, Telangana has just 56 snigger dogs and 152 tracker dogs. The IITA trains dogs from across the country, including those belonging to private agencies like the GMR airport and others.