Bringing way-ward motorists to book was never so easy. All you have to do is post their ‘violations’ on Traffic Police Facebook page. However, if you want the police to take action on the traffic violations you witnessed, mere posting the photographs will not help.
For traffic police to raise an e-challan based on the Facebook posts, the account from which a photo is being posted has to be authentic, Inspector e-Challan, M. Narsing Rao said.
“The software used to edit and morph a photograph has made a tremendous progress and there is a possibility that someone can fabricate a photograph to settle scores with others. Because of this we have to be very careful with the authenticity of the person posting these photographs,” Mr. Rao said.
The first step that the police take is to check the profile of the person posting the information.
A person can be judged as authentic if he uploads his personal details on Facebook, has a proper e-mail id, is reasonably active on Facebook and has a friends circle, Mr. Rao explained.
“We are wary of accepting the photos from accounts that do not have proper details,” he said. This, Mr. Rao points out, is mainly because the person who provided the proof of violation has to be ready to testify before a court.
“There is a possibility that the person receiving an e-challan might contest it in a court, and we will have to trace the person, who provided the evidence in the first place, to substantiate the charge,” he said.
Currently photographs taken by policemen are being used to raise e-challans.
The evidence provided by the policeman that he had witnessed the violation and photograph is a proof of that violation, can stand in a court.
But the photos sourced from Facebook cannot stand such scrutiny unless the person who took it comes to testify the same, Mr. Rao explained.
Traffic police started its Facebook page last year and till date users have posted more than 1,000 violations on this page, Mr. Rao added.
You can post photographs of any traffic violation at traffic police’s Facebook page ‘www.facebook.com/HYDTP’.