Story behind the daily grind

Police stories are engrossing, no doubt. But rarely is the rough and tumble of the force seen as stuff that can make for a coffee table book.  

Yet, M N Anucheth, joint commissioner (traffic), Bengaluru, has managed to dig out interesting facets from the history of the Bengaluru traffic police and pen a coffee table book on the force. Anucheth has managed to weave a rich tapestry of facts and anecdotes while examining how the Bengaluru traffic police has evolved over the years, the story behind signals replacing policemen who once guided traffic from the middle of the road and the choice of their uniform. In a chat with DHoS, he shared his journey of how he got down to writing the book and why it is important to document the evolution of the force. Excerpts

This is the first-ever coffee table book about the Bengaluru traffic police. How was the idea born?

The idea behind the coffee table book was to document the rich history of the Bengaluru traffic police and visually showcase the tireless efforts of the force while documenting the triumphs and challenges the traffic police face. We also wanted to highlight the technological innovations of BTP. The collection of information took about nine months. We’ve interviewed senior officers who served in BTP and historians, as well as combed through various archives for our research. 

Old Bengalureans would have seen policemen using hand signals to direct traffic. The journey thereafter from traffic lights to the current adaptive traffic control system wasn’t easy, I suppose?

Initially, traffic policemen would stand on a 2-foot-high pedestal and provide hand signals to motorists. The first traffic signal light was installed in 1964 at NR Square. The rapid growth of the city and its vehicular population saw the introduction of signal lights at several important junctions. Today, there are 500-plus traffic signal lights. Bengaluru was the first city to introduce timers in signal lights way back in 1999, followed by solar signal lights in 2006. Keeping in mind the explosive growth of vehicles in Bengaluru, it was imperative to introduce the latest generation of traffic signals that leverage AI technology to optimise signal timing and achieve synchronisation. Therefore, in 2024, AI-based adaptive signals were implemented in 165 junctions. We have been at the forefront of using the latest cutting-edge tech to improve traffic management.

The book has a section on how the Traffic Management Centre (TMC), which integrates many services, was a big step forward...

The first rudimentary form of TMC was started in 2007 at the automation centre located in the Public Utility Building. It had a handful of cameras and three televisions, and in 2010, a full-fledged TMC comprising 170 CCTV cameras and a monitoring centre with 20 video screens was established at what is now the Ashok Nagar traffic police station. In 2014, the current Traffic Management Centre began. It is the nerve centre of traffic management, where feeds from 9,000 plus CCTV cameras, 4,500 plus body-worn cameras, 10 drones and 50 dashcams are monitored live on a 70ft video wall. All 500+ traffic signals are monitored 24×7, including the 165 AI signals. 

The story of how the patrolling mechanisms by BTP evolved is interesting as well!

Initially, a few SUVs were used for patrolling and mobile enforcement in the 1990s. With rapid vehicular growth and the need for a quicker response, in the early 2000s, two-wheelers, called ‘cobras’, were introduced.

Today, we have about 250+ such patrolling motorbikes, which are into parking enforcement and act as first responders to accidents. Since 2024, they have been integrated into the dial 112 system and respond to all the traffic-related issues/incidents reported.

The book mentions that the transition to the Intelligent Traffic Enforcement management system (ITEMS) was done to bring in transparency in the system and ensure accuracy. How successful has this been?

The adoption of the ITEMS system was not hassle-free. The primary issue was the accuracy of the system. Even with 95% accuracy, if we generate 20,000 challans, 1,000 would be wrong.

For any system to be accepted by the public, it would need to be trustworthy. Trust comes only with data integrity and accuracy. Learning from the feedback, we introduced manual validation of every challan generated. Today, the accuracy is at 99.999%. Even then, an option has been introduced for the public to dispute a wrongly raised challan. Another minor issue is the accuracy of the vehicle details in the Vahan database. Sometimes, correct details are not available. We are working closely with the Transport department to improve the database.