Transport officials to soon wear body cameras to record, live stream challans

The cameras will be 4G and Wi-Fi enabled so that the video recordings can be monitored on real-time basis in the department’s operations control centre.

Enforcement inspectors of Delhi’s transport department will soon wear body cameras to record their interactions with traffic violators, an official said.

At present, body-worn cameras are used by 200 policemen in the national capital, but unlike the ones being procured by the transport body, these cannot live stream the videos being recorded. (Vipin Kumar / HT File)

The department has floated a tender for buying body-worn cameras which will live stream activities of the officers on field. “Since our teams are most active during the night for checking overloaded trucks, and other vehicles, the cameras will have an infrared night vision.They will be 4G and Wi-Fi enabled so that the recordings can be monitored on real-time basis in the department’s operations control centre,” said a transport official who is part of the project.

The move to record the incidents came after series of corruption complaints against officers. “There have been complaints where certain officers have let off violating drivers after accepting bribes,” an enforcement officer said.

He added that the move will also have a “civilising effect” on all involved — the officers and the civilians. “Video recording will also act as factual evidence about what occurred. It will help in case violators contest being prosecuted or either party engages in misbehaviour,” he said.

At present, body-worn cameras are used by 200 policemen in the national capital, but unlike the ones being procured by the transport body, these cannot live stream the videos being recorded.

Around 300 officers of the transport department are empowered, apart from the traffic police, to prosecute traffic violators. The department has also developed a software for reshuffling teams and assigning fresh duties in different areas once in every two days. This random reshuffle, officials said, is to ensure officers do not develop a nexus with local violators.

Unlike traffic policemen, these enforcement inspectors still use manual challan books. The transport department is floating another tender to procure e-challan machines. “At present, the challaning process in enforcement branch is paper based where a challaning officer manually writes down the challan details and issues the challan to the offender. The proposal is to start e-challaning in enforcement wing. This project is aimed to exceed monitoring and improving our challan system,” the proposal document read.

The device will have a driving licence and vehicle registration certificate reader, apart from being integrated with the central database called ‘Vahan’.