Incidents of misbehaviour by traffic policemen with citizens, and vice versa, are often reported in the city. But come next month, all the interactions of residents with traffic policemen will be recorded. According to a senior traffic police officer, traffic cops on duty will be equipped with body-worn cameras as early as the first half of March as 200 such cameras are expected to be procured by the end of February. So next time you are stopped by a constable for traffic rule violation, don’t forget to smile as you might be on camera.
According to the Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sharad Agarwal, the tender to procure body-worn cameras for the traffic officials is in the final stage and if all goes according to plan, then traffic officials on duty will be equipped by 200 such cameras by next month.
“All the interactions between the traffic policemen and the citizens will be recorded. In case of any altercation between the two, the recording could be downloaded and used as evidence,” said Agarwal adding that it will not only keep a check on the behaviour of the traffic personnel, but will also come to their aid if any traffic offender misbehaves with the official.
It must be noted that while the decision to equip traffic officials with body-worn cameras was taken long ago, but the incident of a woman allegedly being hit by a head constable, for allegedly being denied a bribe of `200 last year in May, had fast-tracked the procurement process. The head constable Satish Chandra had made a counter allegation that the woman had misbehaved with him first and had incited him to take the drastic action.
Fast-tracking the procuring of body-worn cameras, Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander had then said that equipping police personnel with cameras that will record each interaction with the citizens will ensure that any such conflict based on opposing claims will be resolved based on evidence.
Joint CP (Traffic) Sharad Agarwal further said that not only these cameras will be used to resolve conflicts arising out of altercations between citizens and police officials, but they may also be used to ensure high standards of behavior on part of traffic officials on duty.
“Senior officers may also randomly pull out footages of interactions of policemen on duty to keep a check on how they behave with common citizens on a day-to-day basis. With all conversations being recorded and being randomly checked for quality assessment, it will make sure that our men are also on their best behavior while performing their duties,” he further added.