Errant motorists fall in line on spotting body cameras

PUNE: The new body cameras being sported by a few Pune traffic cops have greatly helped them maintain order on the roads.

For one such cop, police naik Laxman Bangar, the last few days manning various junctions in the city have been rather peaceful. He said the motorists he stopped for rule violations didn’t engage in heated arguments.

Bangar, attached to the Bund Garden division of the traffic department, said there’s been a noticeable difference in the attitude of the motorists after he started wearing the body camera.

“When people see a camera on the uniform, they become less aggressive and more cooperative. I have been using the body camera for eight days and the change is visible,” he said.

Bangar said that earlier, unruly motorists would behave as if the police were wrong in stopping them. “Traffic rule violators would act as if we were at fault for catching them. But now, when they see the camera, not only do they stop their vehicle, but also cooperate when we issue the challan. There are no more unnecessary arguments. We also save a lot of time and focus on the traffic,” Bangar explained.

“Seventeen personnel from the department have been provided body cameras so far. These personnel have been deployed at different junctions in the city. The model has been successful in Hyderabad and so, we have also implemented it,” explained Tejaswi Satpute, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).

Satpute said they made the decision after an increasing number of cases of traffic cops being assaulted or abused. “Every second day, we were registering cases against motorists under Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code, for either assaulting our personnel or preventing or deterring them from discharging their duty,” Satpute explained. “The motive behind having body cameras is to ensure that violators do not misbehave with police personnel,” she added.

The traffic department plans to buy 100 cameras for now. “If we do not see a change in people’s attitudes, we will increase the number of cameras. We do not have a specific target in terms of number of body cameras in the long run. It is more about the effect of these cameras on the violators,” Satpute said.

Satpute agreed that there has been a slight change in attitude among motorists. “We have noticed that people are not engaging in arguments with personnel wearing body cameras. If there are three personnel at one junction, we have noticed that people refrain from arguing with the one wearing the camera. We will, however, need more time to understand the exact impact of these cameras,” she added.