CCTV cameras in HSR are a farce

A resident visits the control room and comes away disappointed

By RS MURTHY
Two months ago, the residents of HSR Layout were pleased when MLA Satish Reddy announced 100 CCTVs for HSR Layout. Months later, his party spokesperson clarified that 100 was for the entire Bommanahalli constituency and 20 were sanctioned for HSR Layout – 10 installed and 10 more to be done shortly. Last month, I decided to check the efficacy of this setup by visiting several places where they were installed, including the HSR Police Station’s control room to understand how the surveillance works.

The visit was prompted by two concerns. Are the CCTVs serving the purpose? Is the data from the installed CCTVs analysed and available on the public domain? At the HSR police station, I met Inspector Nagaraj. He had a monitoring screen in his room. However, six of the CCTVs were not functioning that day due to some technical glitch. He asked his senior constable to take me to the control room so I could see the action by myself.

The first thing that hit me were the locations. I saw two CCTVs near Airtel Office on 24th Main Road, two near Bank of Baroda on 24th Main Road, two near NIFT on 27th Main Road and four on Mangammanapalya Main Road. The constable had no idea how the locations were picked. I am not sure if all the seven Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) were consulted for this.
The constable could not give me any details on their usability, and if any standard guidelines governed the setup and whether these are linked to the main Police Control room and if this data is shared on public domain.

Regarding the efficacy of the CCTVs, the constable mentioned that except for a scuffle captured on one of the Mangammanapalya CCTVs, the cops had noticed nothing significant since their installation. So much hype and nothing to show for it.

The constable also mentioned that the traffic police have their own CCTV system. In all fairness, they should be integrated and the information shared with other civic agencies like BBMP on encroachment of footpaths and so on.

Ideally, the CCTVs should have been installed with the guidelines provided by the vendor in consultation with the RWAs and the general public. This set-up appears to be mere lip service by the powers-that-be. What is the contribution of the ward corporator to this important surveillance system?

RS Murthy is a resident of Sector 2 and the former president of the Sector 2 Residents Welfare Association