With the initiative of installing CCTV cameras, the HP police have introduced a new concept of predictive policing— a US model of policing involving usage of mathematical and other analytical techniques in law enforcement to identify potential criminal activity in the areas under surveillance .
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated a CCTV Surveillance Matrix & Command Centre, commissioned in a record time of 65 days during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CCTV Surveillance Matrix system is aimed towards implementation of “Stopping crime before it starts”. The concept is to focus on predicting crimes, predicting offenders/perpetrators, predicting victims, predicting places and predicting time’ said DGP Sanjay Kundu .
The police at present, have approximately 19,000 CCTV cameras installed all over the State. These cameras are very helpful in the prevention and detection of crime, investigations, traffic management, manpower optimization and improving efficiency in police service delivery, Kundu added.
He claimed “ keeping in view the population of Himachal Pradesh, which is more than 68 lakh, ideally 68,0000 cameras are required to be installed all over the State”. Himachal Pradesh Police also propose to enter into collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, to facilitate the police personnel to update their knowledge about new technologies, geographical and temporal analysis of crime , predicting crime trends, traffic management, e-challaning and threat and security analysis.
Other areas like cybercrime, cyber forensics and cyber security will also be covered as part of capacity building, which will involve Police Officers and IIT faculty, researchers as well as students, said Kundu .
