Big Brother is watching: Police stations to have CCTVs

Varinder Bhatia
Express India
Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:07 EDT


Closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) will soon be installed at 11 police stations in the city to keep an eye on the functioning of the police personnel. These CCTVs, which would be operational by March end have been installed on the orders of the top brass of the city police.

The CCTVs that would record the ongoings 24/7 would be monitored by the police control room, where the data would be stored for three months. The inspector general of police and senior superintendent of police will have access to the clippings at the click of a mouse.

The cameras would be installed at the entrance to the police station, duty officer's room, lock-ups (for men and women), open area in the police station as well as the interrogation room.

Speaking to The Indian Express, UT Inspector General of Police SK Jain said, "This would be the second city in the country after Delhi, to have CCTVs in police stations. While Delhi has CCTVs in only a few police stations, Chandigarh would be having them in all. The main idea behind introducing these is to keep a watch on the daily happenings in the police stations. The camera recordings can only be viewed via broadband. It'll be April end or maybe May, by when things will be streamlined. There are some other technical hitches as well, which would be cleared in the next few weeks."

"But with now everything being on record, it'll be easier to address complaints of police torture or illegal confinement. And with the data being stored for three months, it'll not be easy for errant police officers to escape get away with excuses," Jain said.

The project, which has been in the pipeline for the last few months, would be completed by March end but it'll be another few weeks before the IGP and SSP have access to the camera recordings on their personal computers.