A blind Big Brother

State-of-the-art, one way to describe the Command, Control, Coordination and Communication Centre (C4i) at the police headquarters. It can also be described as “jinxed”. See graphics

State-of-the-art, one way to describe the Command, Control, Coordination and Communication Centre (C4i) at the police headquarters. It can also be described as “jinxed”.

HT Image

While the centre will be ready by this month-end, its eyes, the cameras, 57 in major markets and 27 at border check posts, to provide video feed for analysis, have not been installed at the markets and borders.

Nearly 1,000 police control room (PCR) vans, 12 police video monitoring vehicles, 700 traffic vehicles and even hotels too were to be linked to the centre.

With the cameras missing, Delhi Police sources say they won’t be able to do much. “We will manage with the resources we have,” said Karnal Singh, JCP (northern range).

Once perceived, the threat information (colour coded in red, yellow and green, based on the severity) would be flashed across all the screens.

“Live feed from the cameras would be displayed at the C4i centre. Any suspicious movement or emergency would be spotted at the centre and relayed to the local police. If there is a stampede, we will be able to make announcements on the public address system from the centre to control the situation before additional force can be rushed,” said a senior police officer.

The centre will have three 32” and two 46” LCD screens. In all, there would be 88 screens at the centre covering the city. “The centre will be operational before the Games,” said Rajan Bhagat, spokesman, Delhi Police.

See graphics