Crime watch with live feed from street CCTV

Nagpur: Live feed from at least 3,600 CCTV cameras installed across the city for the Rs520 crore ‘Smart and Safe City project’ would help DCP (crime) Sambhaji Kadam to monitor the streets, especially crime-prone areas, from his office at Gittikhadan. The high-end system would also help him supervise and guide police personnel on the ground.
The effectiveness of the surveillance system has moved up after CCTV footage was made directly available to officers of DCP rank apart from some police stations. The system would also enable them to see a ‘replay’ of a crime for detailed scrutiny and analysis.

DCP Kadam said, “I can now collect a screenshot of the incident and send it to the officer on the spot with required guidelines. We can also directly guide our teams in chasing a criminal using the cameras installed at various junctions.”

The public address system attached with it will enable senior officers to orally communicate instructions to their personnel on the spot without leaving their office space. “The senior officers can formulate anti-crime strategies on the basis of their observations and guide accordingly,” he said.

The other add-on facilities of the CCTV system includes number plate and facial recognition for crime detection. “The patrolling patterns and prevention measures too can also be improvised with the help of CCTV images. We can divert our patrolling teams in case we notice any suspicious movement on any cameras,” added Kadam.

Around a week ago, similar facility was unveiled at the office of zonal DCP Harssh Poddar. The office was connected to CCTV feed of only his zone in north Nagpur.