Concerned over the rising confrontations between traffic policemen and motorists who flout rules on city roads, Gurgaon police will soon equip its traffic cops with body-worn cameras to record their movements as well as interactions with violators when a vehicle is flagged down. Officials said the traffic department is expected to get at least 15 body-worn cameras within a fortnight. Traffic inspectors and zone officers stationed in major areas such as MG Road, Sector 29, Old Delhi-Gurgaon Road and Udyog Vihar will be given these cameras during the trial phase.
Cops will wear the cameras on their shirts like an identity card. The device will have a rotatable camera head and wide-view lens that allows to record what’s in the front. The screen would allow officers to playback the videos instantly to the drivers, which will show their violations. The traffic policemen will wear the cameras during duty hours and in case of any altercation with vehicle owner or driver, it would record the incident so that the errant party, whosoever he may be, cannot concoct any false story before the officer during a probe, officials said.
The cameras will help in improving road safety and will be used to educate citizens on behaviour improvements, make them aware of their violations through evidence-based recordings and educate them on following the road rules. Importantly, the video and the audio will have a date and time stamp, tamper-proof digital fingerprint and encryption. It will not be possible for the user to delete, overwrite footage, or distribute videos using the camera. Devices will be robustly encrypted for this purpose, officials said. The recordings will be transferred to an authorised computer, tagged to a specific user for storage. The high-definition cameras will operate in nearly all weather conditions. They will have a non-removable battery and memory.
