Over 3,500 'blind spots' identified, to get CCTV surveillance soon
new delhi: The Delhi Police have identified over 3,500 vulnerable spots in the Capital that may soon see CCTV cameras being installed. Officials said that a meeting was held between the top brass of Delhi Police, where all 15 districts placed the number of cameras required in their areas.
Sources told Millennium Post that, during the meeting, the non-functionality of existing CCTV cameras was also discussed. As for the district most in-need of cameras, the East district had over 900 spots that required surveillance. More than 400 such spots were found in the North-East District and the Central district presented a requirement for over 190 spots that needed surveillance.
Officials added that Shahdara had over 300 "blind spots" - so to speak, Dwarka had about 270, North around 220, Outer North over 200 such points, New Delhi about 160, North West and South East about 170 each, West and Rohini around 80 and in Outer Delhi and South West, about 70 and 65 such spots were found respectively.
As per sources, one of the districts directed its station house officers to make a concrete effort to liaise with the dignitary of the area for the installation of CCTVs at these sites. One district claimed that the installation of more than 2,500 CCTVs under a project in Delhi was already in progress.
Recent data found that over 1,100 CCTV cameras, installed in various parts of the city, were defunct. "In August, over 1,100 cameras were found non-functional. Whereas more than 5,500 cameras were found working," data showed. The reasons for these non-functional cameras were mainly because of non-maintenance, theft of the equipment or third party damage. In the posh areas also CCTV cameras were found defunct.
There are cases where the non-availability of CCTV cameras hampered investigation especially in the cases related to street crime. In some cases, CCTV cameras were installed in the vicinity of the incident spots but they were found to be non-functional. In road accident cases, also unavailability of electronic surveillance has hit the probe. There were also incidents where the accused took away cameras with them.
As per officials, these cameras play a significant role in protecting the public and assisting investigations.
Delhi Police had directed senior officers to prepare a detailed action plan for each police station to improve the management of the police station and for minimising criminal incidents in the area.
