New Delhi: As the pandemic continues to change the fabric of every aspect of human coexistence, the Delhi Police have welcomed the change somewhat and embraced the use of technology in policing. According to the latest data, the city police have used drones to enforce lockdown measures in the Capital over 1,200 times in the last few months.
According to the data accessed by Millennium Post, the South District had used the technology more than 500 times to monitor social distancing, vegetable markets, parks, movement of labourers, surveillance of shelter homes, labour camps, containment zones and religious places. Drones were used from the first lockdown which started on March 25.
The South-East district is learnt to have used drones over 270 times for surveillance in sensitive areas like the Tughlaqabad Extension, Tughlaqabad village, wine shops at Transit camp, Govindpuri area, Markaz, Nizamuddin West, Nizamuddin clusters, Outer Ring road, Nehru Place Complex Gandhi Camp, Okhla vegetable market, railway tracks and the Shaheen Bagh market.
Drones were used over 159 times by the South-West district to keep an eye on containment zones, vegetable markets and other places to ensure implementation of lockdown guidelines; whereas the Dwarka district used drones more than 50 times to keep a check on movements of migrants, social distancing and gatherings at religious places.
To keep a tab on containment zones and enforcing lockdown measures, 52 times technology was used by the North district. The North East district used drones over 40 times to keep a tab on gatherings at major crossings in the district. Central and East districts used the drones around 40 times each, while the West district used the remote surveillance technology more than 30 times and Outer Delhi districts used it more than 20 times.
CP's call for working together
In a recent order, SN Shrivastava, Delhi Police Commissioner, said, "DCPs of districts shall work closely with the Deputy Commissioners of Revenue districts, Deputy Commissioners of Municipal Corporations, district heads of other departments and heads of Government hospitals of GNCT of Delhi with the specific purpose of improving the response of the government to the COVID-19 pandemic."
These directions come after the Delhi Disaster Management Authority decentralised COVID-19 management by empowering district magistrates as administrative heads for disaster management, thereby putting police officers under the administrative command of district officials.
The Police Commissioner's order further read, "A close watch is required to be kept on all COVID hospitals and cremation centres, should any law and order problem arise. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the force is completely stretched out for multifarious duties. There is a need to make a professional and judicious deployment of forces which should be decided at the level of DCPs. Joint Commissioners of Police and ranges shall closely supervise the functioning of DCPs in districts for further improving the public response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other duties."