In a bid to strengthen surveillance on key areas in the city to the next level, the City Police have started linking private CCTV cameras to the modernised police control room. As of now, the control room is receiving feeds from over 360 surveillance cameras belonging to private establishments and individuals.
An initiative by City Police Commissioner A. Amalraj, the expanded surveillance cover is also expected to act as a tool to prevent crimes.
“The modern control room is equipped to receive feeds from private CCTV cameras. Our aim is to connect over 4,000 CCTV cameras to the control room,” said city police commissioner A. Amalraj.
As of now, feeds from over 360 cameras are being received by the control room besides visuals from 250 surveillance cameras maintained by city police.
Feeds from private cameras at places like Cross Cut Road, Saibaba Colony, airport, Gndhipuram bus stand, Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), parts of Tiruchi Road, Avinashi Road, and Meetupalayam Road are being received by the control room.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) S. Saravanan said that 70 % of technical arrangements required for connecting private cameras have been completed.
“Expanding the surveillance cover is a crime prevention tool. With major roads covered by CCTV cameras, anti-social activities and traffic violations can be controlled. Also, they will help police to identify law and order issues occur in a specific locality,” said Mr. Saravanan.
Apart from linking cameras belonging to shops and private establishments, residential associations and apartments can also provide feeds to the police to tighten security in the area. Based on these visuals, the control room can depute patrol teams to a location at times of emergency.
The police have also plans to create specific groups based on the feeds received from private cameras. For instance, feeds from places where elderly people living alone can be brought under a single group to give more attention.
Feeds from children’s ward at CMCH will help cops to prevent cases of child lifting and mothers leaving hospital abandoning children.
