The city police are all set to replace its conventional beat books with passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, Vimala Putt Aditya.
The passive sensors will replace beat books placed in residential areas and in front of key offices such as the Reserve Bank of India. Policemen and women walking the beat would carry battery-powered devices that would activate the electronic beat books at the press of a button. He said the State police had okayed the proposal, which was being actively processed.
Control room upgrade
State Police Chief K.S. Balasubramanian on Sunday inspected the city police control room. Officials said the second phase of the control room modernisation and relocation project was fast under way. A part of the facility had been shifted to the third floor of the building housing the office of the Assistant Commissioner, control room.
There was also a proposal to shift the facility to a new building coming up in the precincts of the Armed Reserve Camp at Nandavanam.
If so, the existing control room would be maintained to provide security to the Secretariat, its annex, and the nearby Accountant-General’s Office.
The police hoped to bring more areas of the city under the non-stop surveillance of police security cameras by this year end.
More cameras meant better traffic management and crime prevention. An official said the expanding police security camera network had worked as a “force multiplier” and enhanced the ability of law enforcers to detect and apprehend criminals (chiefly drug peddlers, pick pockets, chain snatchers and those who harass women in public places). The surveillance system also helped the police optimise manpower deployment, he said.