One has to believe that life-size cardboard cops in Information Technology city Bangalore are manning the traffic. As an experiment Bangalore Traffic Police has placed life-size cardboard cops at a few vantage points in the city. According to the police, this is an experiment to reduce traffic offences. The fake cops have created a curiosity in Bangalore and police believe they have reduced the traffic violations.
According to Additional Commissioner MA Saleem, as the traffic police can’t be omnipresent, the cardboard cops are helping the city to man the traffic. He said, “Drivers in Indian cities violate traffic rules when there are no cops around — they jump traffic lights and go the wrong way on one-way streets. These cutout cops are very effective and they can be on the job seven days a week.”
According to officials, the life-size flat pack cutouts are frequently used in places like Britain and North America as a crime prevention measure. The Additional Police Commissioner said this was the first time in the country such an idea had been employed in one of Indian cities.
This move is part of a drive to control traffic in the city that has about 4.2 million vehicles on its roads. Bangalore is home to multinational firms like Microsoft, Coca Cola, IBM and Hewlett Packard apart from Indian IT giants Infosys, TCS and Wipro.
Krishna Kannur, an IT professional, who passes through near Raj Bhavan everyday finds a cop-like figure watching the traffic. He said, “It is quite interesting. I see few cutouts. It is working from a distance. Whatever it is we need to discipline the unruly traffic in Bangalore. I appreciate the effort of the Bangalore Traffic Police.”
Traffic Police Commissioner Saleem says the fake cops were effective and in some areas violations have come down. He accepts that there is a shortage of traffic cops in Bangalore. According to police, Bangalore needs around 6,000 traffic cops to patrol its roads, but currently it has only 3,000 personnel. Thus, the traffic department has come up with an “innovative” idea. Till now, three cardboard cutouts were put in various locations, but one was stolen.
The police are also planning to fix cameras on the fake cops to reduce violations. Police say there were more than 60,000 traffic violations in Bangalore in 2012. At least two pedestrians are killed on its roads every day by speeding vehicles.