Bengaluru Commissioner of Police (CP) Praveen Sood, in an exclusive interview to IBTimes India, praised the influx of technology in police work, and came down heavily on traffic violators and people who form mobs to take justice into their own hands.
In an interview with Danish Manzoor, he explained how traffic violators and vigilantism-fuelled mobs made policing all the more tough in a city that has 1.1 crore people.
He also explained that technology in the form of CCTV cameras was not only helping the police solve crimes but also leading to more reportage of crimes because people now have evidence that they have been victimised, instead of just word of mouth.
Policing improvements
Speaking about the improvements in policing, Sood explained how efforts were being made to turn 100 into a "single point of contact for people in distress, on the lines of 911 in the US and 999 in the UK."
To that end, the waiting times of the calls to the number had been reduced from the promised 15 seconds to "just four-five seconds," he said. The police are now working on the response times, which was still 18-19 minutes as opposed to the promised 15 minutes.
He also said that police personnel had been sensitised to lend a patient ear to people who come to police stations, because those who approach cops there do so only in distress. He said that sometimes listening patiently to complainants solves half the problem.
People problems
Another problem Sood pointed out was dealing with people when it came to scenes of crimes and obeying traffic rules. He gave examples of how the police – when they arrive at the spot of an accident – often have to deal with irate bystanders first before tending to the injured or taking custody of the accused.
A similar problem he highlighted was that of traffic violators: More specifically, people who run red lights because there are no policemen around.
"People think the red signal means nothing if the policeman is not standing there [and directing traffic]," he said, explaining how manpower was being wasted in places where it should not even be there in the first place.
He also cited the example of how uncontaminated crime scenes can lead to suspects. In one instance, he said, the involvement of a welder was brought to light by patters of burn marks on a rubber chappal left behind by the accused. In another instance, some biological matter left behind led them to ragpicker who was allegedly involved in a crime.
Technology and good policing
The Bengaluru CP also stressed on the influence of technology in good policing, and gave the example of CCTV cameras.
He said more women are now approaching the police with complains because they can now back up their story with video evidence taken from CCTV cameras.
However, he also decried the lack of CCTV cameras in the city. He said London has close to 70 lakh CCTV cameras, of which only 16,000 are of government agencies while the rest are privately-owned.
Compared to that, Bengaluru has mere 10,000-20,000 private and only 1,000 government-owned CCTV cameras.
