The Central Railway (CR) will provide Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel with body cameras to get real-time visuals wherever they have been deployed. The new equipment is being procured by the Mumbai division pursuant to a Railway Board directive to equip RPF personnel with the cameras. The directive has also laid down a series of rules on who should have them and where they should be used.
Railway officials said the objective is to bring in greater transparency and accountability in the system. “We get cases where passengers allege they have been harassed by RPF personnel but there is no way to ascertain the truth. Similarly, the staff will be more vigil while performing their duty with the knowledge that their actions are being recorded and monitored,” an official said.
Each camera costs around ₹35,000 and comes equipped with a GPS device. “They are 4G equipped and can live stream visuals to our control room. They can last up to eight hours on a single charge,” a railway official said. The cameras are expected to arrive in the next two months, and the CR is making preparations in their existing CCTV control room.
The CR will procure 40 such cameras in the first phase and will deploy them with personnel on train, who will be part of escort teams. The CR deploys a team of six RPF staff on 40 trains at night as a security measure. Initially, teams on priority trains will be provided with these cameras, which can be clipped on to uniforms.
Railway officials said law and order issues and thefts and robberies that are committed in mid-section are tough to tackle. With the cameras, the staff will be better equipped to deal with the situations. Body cameras were first trialled on the Western Railway where they have been used by RPF staff for over a year. The cameras have been instrumental in detecting train bullies who would restrict entry to commuters at select stations.