The city police initiated the move to popularise installation of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in public places in 2012, when Sanjay Mathur took charge as Commissioner. After several meetings with different groups of traders, the police managed to cover over 1,400 important junctions and roads with the digital eye.
The police promoted CCTV claiming that it would serve as a deterrent to crimes and also help in detection. Not once, but many times, the electronic devices had come in handy for the police to solve crime cases. The popular instances are the solving of murder of milk vendor B. Suresh Kumar on Nethaji Road in June 2013; the murder of ‘Pambu’ Pandi on East Marret Street in September 2013; and the arrest of a chain-snatching accused in Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple. The list is long.
On the other hand, because of their non-functioning, the cameras, especially those put up by the police through private sponsors, have come a cropper in police investigation in recent times.
In the very recent murder of a retired woman teacher from Anna Nagar, who was found dead along the Ring Road, special teams returned empty-handed as CCTVs at five locations — check-posts at Melamadai junction and Teppakulam, Suguna Stores junction and Sivaganga Road and Ramanathapuram Road junctions on Ring Road — were either not working or not effective enough.
Low resolution“This is the case with the CCTV networks in private buildings also. We find that the cameras do not have high resolution that can help us track the registration number of vehicles,” an officer involved in investigations said. When the police try to zoom in on a person or a vehicle number, the pixels break and images are not visible.
In many places, night vision facility is lacking. In some other locations, the back-up is not good enough to store the visual content for more than a week. “At least, those managing it should take back-ups in CDs for future reference,” the officer said.
A police source said that the beat police personnel should check various aspects of functioning of the cameras, including those put up by shops and commercial establishments, periodically.
Even the officers can make random checks to ensure that the job of the police is made easier with the gadget.
