Hyderabad’s Traffic Cops Go Hi-tech With Body-Worn Cameras

18-05-2015

The much anticipated body-worn cameras (BWC) are slated to begin a full-fledged operation from month end. The traffic personnel would be seen donning the BWC, confirmed  senior traffic officials on Tuesday. Moving in sync with modern technology, the Hyderabad Traffic Police (HTP) which procured 100 such hi-definition cameras, under its ‘Smart Policing’ initiative started its pilot operation with 12 sub-inspectors (SIs) at six zones, deploying two at each zone.

Reveal Media, a UK-based company and the most experienced BWC provider in the world, has been chosen by the Telangana Government to supply 100 BWCs to HTP in the first lot. “Operation is going on in full swing. We have selected two SIs from each zone and deployed them at prime locations in six zones – Saifabad, Gopalpuram, Tolichowki, Sultan Bazar, Charminar and SR Nagar,” Inspector (e-challan) M Narsing Rao said, adding that HTP is using the RS3-SX model.

The implementation of BWC would help cops sitting in a Central Control Room and monitor the conversation between a traffic cop and a denizen. The high-resolution audio-visuals would be recorded in the camera and stored in a memory card. 

The 140 gram hi-definition device with all accessories like docking station (connect up to six cameras for battery charging), external battery pack, battery charger, USB plug, covert kit, 32 GB memory card, and leather pouch costs Rs 1.2 lakh* each, the inspector said, adding that Matrix Security and Surveillance Limited, Jubilee Hills has been given a three-year maintenance contract. 

The government which had sanctioned Rs 21 crore** for modernisation of HTP by setting up ‘Automatic Integrated Traffic Management System,’ spent Rs 1.2 crore in purchasing the 100 BWC which is the first of its kind in India. “We were supposed to start the full operation in March but due to some problem in custom clearance, things were held up, but now everything is streamlined and fully geared up to kick start by May end. 

We were also trying to determine the implementation experimentally by trial and error basis to prevent any runtime error,” Rao added. Inspector (Traffic Cell) S Prathap said that the camera was very easy to operate and one just needs to plug and play and the data would be transferred to the main server (capacity 32 TB) on a daily basis. With the memory capacity of 32 GB, the camera can record data up to seven days, he said.

Explaining about the software, the officer said that the DEMS (software which securely store, manages and exports the video files taken on the cameras) is very user friendly. Data can be filtered based on any search criteria which makes it easy to search and retrieve data from the main server. Data can be filtered day wise, zone wise, location wise, policeman wise, etc. 

Article by Victor Rao (Via: The Hans India) 

* A crore is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to ten million (10,000,000), which is written in these regions as 1,00,00,000 with the local style of digit group separators.

** A lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000). In the Indian convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000.