CCTVs at lock-ups found dysfunctional

Punjab police CCTV found nonfunctioning

LAHORE: The closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in rooms of Station House Officers (SHOs) and lock-ups across Punjab in police stations have been found non-functional. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Arif Nawaz Khan has ordered DIG Operations Lahore, RPOs and DPOs to maintain a back-up of at least 15 days. the order read: “It has been observed that whenever any incident or misconduct happened and tried to access the backup of CCTV system of lockup or SHO room CCTV, no or very limited backup was found. It shows that backup of this system is not properly maintained which is against the very objective of the CCTV system.” Nawaz asked the field officers to maintain the backup of at least 15 days and district control rooms would submit the report of backup to DPO, CPO, and IGP Monitoring Cell. A few days back, a prisoner reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a lock-up in Akbari Gate Police Station. The family of the victim had staged a protest against his death in police custody. However, police could not produce CCTV footage to ascertain what actually had happened in the cell  The CCTV cameras were installed in SHO rooms to check their performance. To trickle down IGP’s policy, DIG Operations held a meeting at his office on Monday.  

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2019.