The hand-held digital cameras used by traffic personnel in the city to capture traffic violations will soon be replaced with Internet-enabled cameras that come with a slot for the SIM card.
This will enable the photographs to be directly uploaded to the server managed by the Traffic Automation Enforcement Centre for generation of challans, which will then go to the offenders by post for payment of penalty.
All the 100 digital cameras will be replaced by Internet-enabled cameras from the funds to be made available to the city police under M TRAC (Mysore Traffic Improvement Project) in the next financial year, said Police Commissioner M.A. Saleem.
At present, traffic police download the photos of traffic offences, which are captured on the digital cameras throughout the day, only when they return to the stations in the evening. With Internet-enabled cameras, police officials said the photos can be uploaded to the server instantly, leaving little room for manipulation of data. “There will be no more complaints against the police for deleting the photographs of the offences,” another police official said.
The centre, which receives data pertaining to traffic violations caught not only on these hand-held digital cameras, but also on CCTV cameras installed at 43 locations and six mobile Interceptors, issues challans to vehicle owners after collecting their addresses from the Regional Transport Office (RTO).
The vehicle owners will have to pay the penalty at the respective police station.
“If the fine is not paid, the offence will remain recorded against the vehicle and will show up on the BlackBerry devices with the traffic police personnel whenever the vehicle is stopped for checking. Around Rs. 6.67 lakh has been collected as fine through the BlackBerry devices,” in-charge Assistant Sub-Inspector of the centre told The Hindu .
