Jaywalking drive losing steam

The police drive against jaywalkers seems to have fizzled out after the initial intensity shown by the traffic police last week, reports Abhishek Bhalla.

The police drive against jaywalkers seems to have fizzled out after the initial intensity shown by the traffic police last week. The traffic police have not been able to focus on jaywalkers and their efforts have been reduced after the first day of the drive.

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Traffic police are finding it difficult to prosecute jaywalkers and at the same time regulate traffic.

The alarming death rate of pedestrians in the city became a cause of concern for the police and they launched the drive to rein in indisciplined pedestrians. According to police records, 50 per cent victims of road accidents are pedestrians.

The first day saw a team of five-six traffic policemen led by a sub inspector on each of the intersections. A drive was carried out to educate pedestrians. The police had identified six busy intersections in the city with heavy pedestrian movements. The next few days saw only a couple of constables performing the job on these intersections for most part of the day. Since constables were not authorised to prosecute violators, they could be seen giving directions to people not to walk out of turn.

With a total strength of about 4,500 and not more than 2,000 of them on the roads, it makes traffic police’s job all the more difficult.

It is not going to be easy for the police to regulate traffic and keep an eye on faulting pedestrians at the same time. The police admit that their focus now is not to prosecute people but only to educate them. “It is not possible to use all the resources in prosecuting jaywalkers. So we have decided to only focus on traffic violators,” a traffic police officer said.

The traffic police claim there has already been a perceptible change and pedestrians are obeying rules. “There is a definite improvement and people crossing the road are now waiting for the traffic signal to turn red. They are also waiting patiently at crossings,” a raffic police officer said. The idea is not to prosecute people but to instill discipline with a fear of law, the police said.