Constable B. Manohar was watching live streams of different surveillance cameras of Madhapur zone. It was one of the night shift duties during Ganesh Chaturthi in September last year.
After watching visuals of all cameras on the main roads, he randomly started viewing video footage of the cameras on internal roads. It was then that the live stream of a camera near Kukatpally Housing Board Fourth Phase bus stop caught his attention.
“The videos showed a speeding car ramming a cement concrete road barricade installed at the ‘Y’ junction,” the constable recalled. He reversed the video footage to ascertain whether it was an accident and alerted the local police, who rushed to the spot and shifted the injured of the ‘self-accident’ to hospital. There were no casualties. A month later, a biker rammed the barricade at the same spot at night. Two more accidents followed.
Warning bell
For Manohar and his colleagues, who watched videos of other similar accidents at the same place, it was a warning bell. They alerted their team leaders. The traffic police swung into action, pasting glow signs all along the barricade. No more instances of vehicle drivers hitting the barricade were reported after that.
Welcome to the Public Safety Integrated Operation Centre (PSIOC) of Cyberabad police! Manohar is one of the 65 personnel working round-the-clock in this centre to make people’s lives safer in Cyberabad Commissionerate jurisdiction. It started as a mini control room two years ago. Constables would see video footage of CCTV cameras from here and generate e-challans for violations like not wearing helmet or wrong route driving. The visuals were also useful to keep tab on suspicious elements during massive congregations or processions.
That typical old school police control room transformed into an ultra-modern command centre. Here, data received from different sources is processed through analytics into actionable intelligence. The inputs are passed onto field officers to act upon for effective policing.
Compelling the local police to fix glow signs on the barricade at Kukatpally to check recurrence of accidents is the result of the alacrity of the staff here. Their contribution is much deeper and that helps even in cracking mysteries behind crimes.
The network of 2,000 surveillance cameras installed by the government is linked with 4,000 more community cameras located at different places in Cyberabad jurisdiction. Some of these have built-in Automatic Number Plate Recognition System. PSIOC, described as tier-3 data centre with 15 peta byte video surveillance storage capacity, is making use of different analytics to crack the whip on offenders.
Easy tracking
A bike-borne youngster went on a spree of snatching chains from women. He was confident of not being identified as he wore a helmet covering his face. Shattering his belief, police descended at his place, having tracked him down based on a sign inscribed on one of the things he used while committing the crimes.
Detectives scanned the sign by running analytics through video footage of different cameras, got a clue and caught him. Minute details of busting this offender and many more like him could not be divulged as that would alert them.
In localities where surveillance cameras are not available, police personnel with body-worn cameras are sent to assess the situation. These cameras worn by the constables are linked to the centre. “Sitting here, we examine the videos streamed by the cameras, ascertain facts, prepare the inputs and alert the higher-ups depending on the situation,” Assistant Commissioner of Police S. Ravinder, in-charge of PSIOC, explains.
While extensive analysis of the video content is on, dedicated teams of other police wings like Armed Reserve, Special Branch and Traffic are operating from here and processing information. The AR personnel monitor data pertaining to those being released from prisons. They caution the local police about the offenders, with details of their modus operandi, out of the prison on completion of jail term or on bails.
SB constables keep tab on movements of VVIPs in different routes, watch public meetings or rallies that can foment trouble, collate the data and alert the local police. Simultaneously, a separate team is monitoring all Dial 100 calls. All calls made to Dial 100 land at the control centre in State police headquarters at Lakdi-ka-pul. The control centre executives pass on the calls to patrolling teams of the police stations concerned.
With TSCOP app connectivity, all Dial 100 calls received by patrolling teams in Cyberabad jurisdiction get displayed on the monitors in PSIOC. The app projects minute details like the precise call time, when the patrolling party answered and the response time.
“We also know what is the distance between the caller’s location and the patrolling party. Dial 100 team members verify how each call is attended,” Mr. Ravinder says. This is done to ensure transparency, responsibility and accountability on the part of patrolling teams, be it Blue Colts or other mobile patrolling teams.
Comprehensive analysis
What makes the centre unique is the comprehensive analysis of the crimes and accidents reported in Cyberabad. Using a special software, places more vulnerable to crimes or accidents in each police station area are identified. This helps identify accident black spots (stretches witnessing more accidents) in each police station area.
Through mapping of accidents reported in 2022, the centre identified 10 black spots in the entire commissionerate jurisdiction. Miyapur crossroads, having reported 31 fatal accidents, is at the top place. The centre’s work is not finished by mere recognition of such points most vulnerable to road accident deaths.
The police station concerned, in this case Miyapur, is asked to prepare a report of root cause analysis for such dubious distinction. “Traffic, law and order police identify infrastructural lacunae resulting in road crashes,” the ACP explains. An action plan is prepared to check such fatal accidents.
Generating crime ‘hot spot’ and ‘heat maps’ of each police station jurisdiction is another valuable contribution of the centre to field level police officers. Hot spots and locations, where more property or bodily offences are committed, are identified using the software. If the frequency of incidence of crime is within a radius of 200 metres, that location becomes a hot spot for a police station.
The next aspect for scrutiny would be where were the police patrolling teams when the offenders were committing the crimes. The point book (a place visited by patrolling parties every night) closer to the scene of crime is also verified. This helps in assessing if there is a need to create a fresh point book or re-design routes of the patrolling parties for better monitoring. Reports are generated for specified time periods and localities identified which are sent to the Station House Officers (SHOs) for stepping up security.
PSIOC is thus, emerging as an amalgamation of all control centres providing inputs to make Cyberabad a more secure place. Sometimes, constables operating here are playing a crucial role in enforcement of law and order.
“Sir, it is late in the night and crowds are seen at so and so liquor shop, eatery in your place..”. Such alerts from the PSIOC land at some police stations compelling the latter’s staff to rush there and book e-petty cases against those operating establishments beyond permitted hours.
This is a massive metamorphosis of police control rooms seen a couple of decades ago. There were days when calls made by a citizen to Dial 100 from Adilabad used to land in Hyderabad police control room. From that stage, they evolved into a unified command centre.
It is to be seen if they reach the next level of policing by collecting fingerprints, clues from a crime scene, and pass on details to all police stations within hours of an offence.
- Drone cameras linked to PSIOC are used for real time monitoring of processions, public gatherings, and events.
- Police station command centres are connected to PSIOC for security review.
- Disaster management unit at PSIOC follows weather reports in rainy season, spots waterlogged locations, and sends alerts.
- On an average, 1,000 to 1,200 calls received by Dial 100 are monitored.
- Data of house burglaries during vacations or festivals like Dasara and Sankranti is supplied to police station for better monitoring.
