Seeing is believing: District South’s traffic cops equipped with spy cameras

Move will restrict officials’ ability to misbehave, demand bribes as well as record violators’ behaviour

KARACHI: Mehtaab Ali, the section officer of Hotel Metropole Traffic Section, stands tall and confident, stopping cars with tinted windows as they attempt to breeze past him.

He is fearless and said that now if anyone gets into any sort of altercation with him regarding the violation of traffic laws, he will have video evidence to prove his point.

In order to gauge the behaviour of both the traffic police officials and the public, the traffic police authorities have provided sunglasses and pens attached with spy cameras to some of their personnel in District South.

Ali explained to The Express Tribune that his staff now keeps a pen in the front pocket of their shirts before dealing with the public. He said that the pen has a small camera in it, as well as an audio recorder. With the help of the camera’s video and sound capabilities, he said the traffic police’s interactions with the public are recorded, severely restricting any official’s ability to misbehave with the public or demand bribes.





“The video quality is first class,” he said, adding that even when darkness falls the camera could potentially record video up to 8GB of footage. After recording the video they connect the pen to a laptop at their traffic sections and transfer all the videos. Following that, he said, the videos are transferred to the traffic police’s data section at the traffic DIG’s office in Garden.

Additional traffic DIG Tahir Ahmed Noorani said they have distributed 15 spy cameras concealed in sunglasses and pens to their personnel in District South. He explained that wealthy people, many of whom are very influential, threaten traffic officials with severe consequences if they stop their vehicles or ask for their driving licences.



He recalled how in January a man got into a scuffle with traffic wardens in PIDC area for parking his motorcycle in a no-parking zone and the media turned the incident against the traffic police. Later, however, he said that the CCTV footage showed that the traffic police wardens were only defending themselves and the person violating the traffic laws was actually beating them.

In order to present a clear picture before the media and the public, he said it has become mandatory for them to record traffic police officials’ public dealings.

Erasable

There is, however, a hitch in the system. The videos which will be recorded by the traffic officials can also be deleted by them. To this, Noorani responded that society records videos of traffic police officials using their mobile phones. Their system is just to provide the version of the traffic police officials, he justified.

Cost unknown

On a question regarding the cost of the spy cameras, Noorani responded that they have managed it through the police budget.

He explained that whatever tickets the traffic police officials issue, they get 30% of it while 15% goes to the wardens, whereas, with the remaining 15% is being used to buy the gadgets. However, he did not disclose the actual cost of the cameras.

South only

Like every other campaign of the traffic police, this one too is starting in District South. According to Noorani, most traffic violation takes place at Defence Mor, Korangi Road, Zaibunnisa Street and near Hotel Metropole, which are all parts of District South, and thus, he said that it became necessary to provide the officials of District South with these cameras. Within one week, he assured that they would expand this system to the whole city.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2016.