City police want cameras in more public places

Taking a leaf out of Telangana’s book which is implementing a Public Safety Act, the City police are planning to push for a similar move.

May 05, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 08:11 am IST - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

Taking a leaf out of Telangana’s book which is implementing a Public Safety Act, the City police are planning to push for a similar move.

As part of the Public Safety Act, all establishments and public places where 100 or more people gather regularly have to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.

City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh, who recently attended the South India Regional Workshop on SMART Policing at Bengaluru, said the initiative was presented at the workshop by police officers from Telangana, and it seemed suited for Thiruvananthapuram too.

As per Telangana’s Public Safety Act, CCTV cameras are installed at all public places where 100 or more people gather regularly, including places of worship, educational institutions, bus stops, malls, hotels, railway stations, and shops. These cameras are monitored from the Police Control Room.

“Such monitoring will go a long way in ensuring public safety. We are thinking of proposing such a move in Thiruvananthapuram as well,” Mr. Venkatesh said.

Technology initiatives of the City police such as iSafe, which provided a panic button for smartphones to help women in emergencies, were well-appreciated at the workshop, he said.

Security initiatives

Presentations on security initiatives of the City police such as the Booster Patrol that was launched to tackle chain-snatchers exclusively, the high-tech security provided for the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, iSafe, and the anti-drug campaign titled ‘Clean Campus, Safe Campus’ were made at the workshop.

The workshop, attended by top police officers from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala, was part of the Union government’s initiative to make police forces in the country SMART – Strict and Sensitive, Modern and Mobile, Alert and Accountable, Reliable and Responsive, Techno-savvy and Trained.

More such workshops were slated to be held across the country, and the suggestions and presentations would be deliberated upon, before instructions on ideas that could be replicated across the country were issued to all States, Mr. Venkatesh said.

He said police officers from Karnataka had evinced interest in the iSafe concept, while Thiruvananthapuram could replicate initiatives such as the Telangana government’s grant of Rs.50,000 to Rs.75,000 to all police stations in Hyderabad and Cyberabad for monthly expenditure and curbing corruption.

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