'Over 1,100 CCTV cameras in city non-functional'
New Delhi: Even though CCTV cameras are installed for public safety and detection of crimes, a recent data shows that over 1,100 CCTV cameras installed in various parts of the city were found defunct. Sources told Millennium Post that a recent meeting was held between the top brass of the Delhi Police in which discussion was held on functional and non-functional CCTV cameras.
"In August, over 1,100 cameras were found non-functional. Whereas more than 5,500 cameras were found working," data shows.
As per sources, over 150 CCTV cameras were defunct in north-east Delhi. "Around 72 cameras were found non-functional due to theft and damage by a mob during north-east Delhi riots and more than 80 cameras were not working due to damage in fibre cable and other accessories of CCTV cameras," sources said.
In one of the districts, more than 370 cameras were found not working whereas in another district over 120 cameras were not working.
The prime reasons for these non-functional cameras were non-maintenance, theft of the equipment or third party damage. During the enquiry, the law enforcement agency found out that during repair works carried out by civic agencies, CCTV cables were damaged.
Non-availability or damaged CCTV cameras hamper probe
There are several cases which remain untraced, a host of reasons are responsible for this — including the lack of CCTV cameras. Recently a senior journalist and his wife became victims of another snatching, where the accused stole the woman's bag and tried to steal her mobile. While the police registered the case immediately, their helplessness with this particular case arose due to the lack of CCTV cameras, which would have helped the police to nab the snatcher.
Also in several offences of rash driving, causing hurt by endangering life or personal safety of others and death by negligence under the IPC, non-availability of CCTV footage around the spot has hampered the probe.
Earlier this year, it was found that over 900 CCTV cameras installed in various parts of Delhi are non-functional. The Delhi Police in a letter to the officials of Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) wrote: "On perusal of functional and non-functional status of CCTV cameras provided by user districts of Delhi Police for May 2020, it is observed that out of 3,884 numbers of installed CCTV cameras, 957 are non-functional."
