M'rashtra CM stresses importance of CCTVs

In fact, police depend on CCTVs installed in crowded places to monitor the activities  to gather footage of any incident, yet most cities including Mumbai don’t have enough of them, pointed out government officials here.

Apart from funding constraints to state government, there are differences between the traffic police and the crime branch over this issue.  While the crime branch in Mumbai views that the CCTVs set up to monitor traffic is sufficient to keep a track of criminal activities, the traffic police here point out that it is not their job to install cameras in crowded markets.

A major metro like Mumbai would need anything between 800 to 1,500 CCTVS installed at crucial locations. “It is necessary to have CCTVs in large numbers since these cameras fall under our direct control. We often end up relying on private cameras which are not connected to our control rooms. On such occasions, we end up picking up the feed after the incident,”said a police officer.

After 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, the government had provided funds to police departments to install more CCTVs.   The funding proved insufficient as 70 per cent of it went to government coffers. The state government is ensuring this time these funds are optimally utilised for CCTV installation.

CCTVs in metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru have been installed by the local traffic police that are not located in crowded places like markets, railway stations etc, which are vulnerable to attacks.