Citizens turn to 'Public Eye' to report traffic violations

The six-month-old ‘Public Eye,’ the online traffic rules violation complaint portal of Bangalore traffic police, is becoming popular among Bangaloreans.

Hundreds of citizens are now reporting traffic violations on the portal, which will soon have a mobile version.

“We have already booked 3,326 cases and collected fines over Rs 33 lakh through this portal. The complainants are usually those who are frustrated by traffic nuisance makers,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), M A Saleem said.

Under Public Eye, a citizen after creating an account with valid credentials can upload photos or videos of traffic violations and report them to the police. The Traffic Management Center (TMC) after checking the validity of the complaint, sends violation and fine notice to the offender. 

According to police personnel at the TMC, most of the complaints that are lodged through the portal pertain to ‘no parking’ violations in front of residential or commercial gates. “Usually, we find complaints lodged by apartment or market association members against two-wheelers, cars, autorickshaws or trucks. While we can easily tow away two-wheelers from the spot, Public Eye is deterring drivers of bigger vehicles from violating no-parking norms,” Saleem said.

Tamper proof

Apart from maintaining the anonymity of the complainant, the system is tamper proof, since once the complaint is uploaded, no traffic personnel except those from the TMC can access the file to edit or delete it.

“When a complaint is filed by the cops, some might say that there is a scope for corruption. However, this is completely a technology-driven venture that overcomes such shortcomings,” Salem said. 

However, the traffic personnel have been advised to restrain action in major cases that require physical verification. “There are cases such as drunken driving reported on Public Eye. However, one cannot take cognisance of such complaints without physical verification,” Saleem said.

The department has said that there are occasions when violation notices are sent to wrong persons due to human error and, such matters can be disputed with appropriate authorities. The traffic police intends to soon bring out the mobile version of the portal so that citizens can immediately send the details of traffic offenders.

 Citizens can log on to http://www.bangaloretrafficpolice.gov.in to lodge their complaints.