Want to report a crime in the Elephant Gate police station limits? Head to the nearest pillar fitted with CCTV cameras and two-way speakers and speak aloud. The police personnel watching you at the control room will send help at the earliest.
The Elephant Gate police station has installed 300 CCTV cameras and 200 two-way speakers on over 78 streets under its jurisdiction to nip crime in the bud. “On Monday, the station will be declared the first station to come under 100% CCTV coverage,” said R. Dinakaran, Additional Commissioner of Police, North.
“We started work a few months ago after City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan directed all police stations to get CCTV cameras installed in their jurisdiction.
There are five televisions at the control room and all the streets can be monitored through them. A criminal cannot get out of the locality without being captured by the camera,” said G.K. Venkat Kumar, Inspector (L&O), Elephant Gate Police Station. Police personnel will be present in the control room on shift basis. “They will monitor the screens and alert the patrol teams on duty. We have been trying the cameras and audio system on a pilot basis for the past four months and the number of crimes has reduced drastically. During the Tirupati Kudai procession, not even a single theft case was reported, unlike previous years,” the inspector claimed.
Issue of maintenance
The usual complaint is the lack of maintenance of the cameras. In this case, the police have managed a five-year maintenance contract. “One staff member of the company will always be there in the control room. If a screen goes blank, they will attend to it immediately,” he said.
CCTV cameras have also been installed along the Cooum river in the police station limits. “We can monitor the gangs that gather to smoke and drink and also gangsters who hatch plots. The moment we spot people standing in groups in a suspicious manner, we will direct them to move through the audio system,” explained the inspector.
R. Venkatesan, a resident of Anna Pillai Street falling under the Elephant Gate station limits, said that earlier several thefts used to take place. “After the cameras were installed, the number of incidents has reduced,” he said.
