Lack of CCTV blunts police effort to tackle petty crimes

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 2. Paucity of funds for hiring a closed circuit television (CCTV) network to closely monitor crowd movement during the Onam Week celebrations has blunted the police effort to check on crimes such as eve-teasing and pick-pocketing.

A CCTV network with cameras strategically located to keep a tab on crowd movement, particularly groups of young revelers, had stood the police in good-stead while enforcing law at the main festival venues of Kanakakunnu and Museum grounds in the past years.

The live-feed from the cameras helped officials to pin-point trouble-makers, inebriated youth, compulsive eve-teasers and criminal elements. On the basis of the visual information, officers could direct plainclothes as well as uniformed men to the spot. However, this year, the lack of a CCTV network has proved to be taxing for the overworked men of the city police constabulary who have forsaken their Onam to enforce the law.

When contacted, the City Police Commissioner, Mr. Rajan Singh, said that except for isolated incidents there has been no spurt in petty urban crime such as eve-teasing and pickpocketing.

He said the lack of video-surveillance has been more than made up for by deploying uniformed and plainclothes men in strength. The crowd situation at the festival venues and along the illuminated stretches of the M.G. Road was being strictly monitored. As many as 15 motorcycles have been commandeered from other units of the police for patrolling purposes. The Mounted Police Unit has been called in for night patrolling of crime- prone down town areas of the city and residential colonies.

For the first time in several years, Assistant Commissioners, Circle Inspectors and Sub Inspectors have been instructed to conduct foot-patrolling in their respective areas.

Even as the police were hard-pressed to hire a CCTV network for Onam Week, a Rs. 20-lakh Municipal Corporation-funded project to install a centrally controlled network of highly sensitive video- cameras for monitoring crime and traffic movement at crucial areas in the city is hanging fire owing to official apathy.

The Corporation and police authorities had claimed that the video-surveillance network would be installed by early 2001. The scheme was mentioned with prominence in two Corporation budgets. Also field trials had been conducted by the Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (CDIT) in March last year.

Several strategic locations in the city had been identified for positioning the video-cameras with night vision capability. The key areas identified for 24-hour surveillance were Thampanoor bus stand, Central Railway Station, Overbridge, SL Theatre Road, Pazhavangadi, East Fort, Statue, Secretariat Gates and the General Hospital Road.

According to the original scheme, the cameras would be remotely controlled from a special cell at the Police Control Room. The live feed from the cameras would be recorded by the police if the need arises.

Concealed video-surveillance network has been found to be an effective tool for improving the operational efficiency of the police in several metros. Police cameras have helped cracking down on crimes such as eve-teasing, chain-snatching, drug peddling and waylaying of pedestrians in other cities. The 24- hour surveillance would serve the police to take effective control measures, a senior official said.

The black and white CCD cameras would be mounted on "pan and tilt" units which will enable the men at the Police Control Room to have a 360 degree view of the situation on ground. The cameras which have powerful motorised zoom facility are also capable of plus or minus 90 degree vertical movement.

The video-signals from the individual cameras will be transmitted to the Control Room through cables. At the Control Room, officers would be able to view the high resolution images of a single camera or multiple cameras at the same time. The system will have the facility for scanning and displaying the areas under surveillance at specified intervals. Policemen will be able to record or freeze the image transmitted by any of the cameras to have a detailed view of the situation.

CDIT had designed the surveillance system and was primarily responsible for its installation. The project was to be implemented by the City Corporation under the People's Plan Campaign for the year 2000-2001.

CDIT had conducted initial surveys to decide the optimum position for placing the surveillance cameras. Hotel Chaithram, Ponnara Sreedhar Park, Cooperative Bank building (Overbridge), Hotel Fort View (Pazhavangadi), Thriveni (Statue) were identified as possible locations.

The police had also approached a private cable television company for using its existing video-cable network in the absence of funds for independent cabling.

However, officials said the project does have its limitations. During night the cameras would be able to identify persons only up to a distance of 75 m. Further than that, the camera would be able to identify only larger objects such as parked vehicles.

The camera can cover only a circular area of 100 m radius. The visibility area of the camera is restricted to the line of sight. Due to the positioning of the cameras on high rise buildings and poles, the image of the object under surveillance could be distorted owing to top-angle viewing.

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