Taking a lead in making the optimum use of technology to tackle crime and to keep a hawk eye on criminals, Deepak Pareek, Additional DCP-1, Ludhiana Commissionerate, has taken the initiative to take the live feed of CCTV cameras installed by private establishments directly on mobile phones of the SHOs and on the LED screens at police stations. This is the first-of-its-kind initiative in Punjab in which live feed of civil cameras is being monitored by police stations.
The Kotwali (police station) and the police division No. 2 became the first two police stations in the city to keep a watch on the live feed provided by shops and other private offices. The ADCP worked for two months to make this project a success. ADCP Pareek said, “We were looking for a cost-effective and scalable model to use technology as a force multiplier.
Today, there is a lot of awareness about the utility of CCTV cameras and many houses, shops, malls, schools, hospitals, factories and organisations have installed good-quality IP-based CCTV cameras for their security and surveillance purposes. However, these all CCTV cameras are stand-alone and what was needed was a solution to integrate these so that their footage could be available at the click of a button to the police stations.”
To achieve this, the local police have adopted a simple yet an effective solution. The police motivated shopkeepers on main roads to share the footages of their CCTV cameras through the Internet with their local SHO, ADCP Pareek said, adding that the SHO uses the Internet on his mobile, at police station and a simple application to integrate the footages of different cameras installed at different locations onto one screen.
“All equipment is owned by the shopkeeper. The police station uses existing wifi, mobile and TV screens, so no new cost is involved. This model is also scalable, as up to 50 DVRs can be easily viewed through the same application.” This integration will help the local Station House Officer to keep an eye on his jurisdiction area from his mobile phone/TV screen in the police stations,” said Pareek.
This model is also scalable as the police have started it at the Kotwali police station and police station 2, but slowly will cover all stations in Zone 1. So, all SHOs will have access to these footage on their mobiles/screens installed at police stations without any extra cost. SHO Kotwali Harjit Singh said over 12 cameras had been integrated and many more were to be integrated in the days to come.
