Out of the 7,500 CCTV cameras installed by the Bengaluru city police under the Safe City project, only 5,000 are working as of now. The remaining 2,500 are expected to become functional by the end of February.
“There are some technical problems with the remaining cameras, and they are being fixed. They will start functioning within a month,” a senior police official said.
Even as the police claim that 5,000 cameras are working, citizens from across the city have expressed their disappointment about these cameras being non-functional.
Recently, when a 12-year-old boy went missing from Whitefield, many in the city came together to coordinate the search efforts for the boy. What surprised the volunteers who were directly involved in the search was the fact that most cameras installed by the police were not working.
“The majority of CCTV cameras in Whitefield, Marathahalli, and Outer Ring Road areas are not operational. With footage from just one camera from near Kauvery Hospital, the search team was able to track the missing child better. If all the CCTV cameras were operational, perhaps the child could have been found sooner, along with many who are reported missing every day,” said a member of the search team for the boy.
Similarly, the residents of Talaghattapura alleged that all the 40 cameras installed in the locality under the Safe City project are not working. “They are all high-end cameras, but none is working. No one even knows where the feed from the cameras goes,” said Vajapeyam Srivatsa of Changemakers of Kanakapura Road.
Taking matters into their own hands to have cameras that do not need the involvement of the government, members of the Changemakers of Kanakapura Road pooled in around ₹6 crore to ₹7 crore to procure over a hundred CCTV cameras for Talaghattapura.
“With Talaghattapura’s proximity to NICE Road, there were major safety issues near the entry and exit points. We discussed with the local police inspector who said there was a need for around 300 cameras in the locality,” Mr. Srivatsa said. Under the project executed entirely by the residents’ welfare associations (RWAs), 101 cameras have already been installed while 30 to 40 more are in the pipeline.
As an example, for the importance of the workings of these CCTV cameras, the Talaghattapura police have solved a couple of crimes in the last few months (since before the formal inauguration of the control room in Talaghattapura police station), with the help of these cameras, the residents said. “There was a murder at Chikkegowdapalya and a daylight robbery, and in both cases, the police could recognise the number plates of the vehicles involved and catch the culprits because of these cameras,” Mr. Srivatsa said.
With the need for safety measures increasing, many RWAs from the outskirts of the city are taking the same approach of installing CCTV cameras by themselves. Along with this, many local police stations, apartment complexes, educational institutions and commercial establishments have installed CCTV cameras. Further, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the offices of some MLAs have also installed CCTV cameras at various places.
However, the question remains what is the use of safety infrastructure put up under government initiatives, if it is not functional? “CCTVs are meant for safety and security. Yet, when the need to review footage comes up many do not work. How then is this expense of public money to install CCTVs justified? Why are those that are supposed to be using it, such as the police, not acting on fixing this?” asked a resident from Whitefield.
