Mumbai: CCTVs to monitor all police stations

After the Bombay High Court rap, a much-delayed oversight project gets underway with 30 city police stations getting multiple CCTV cameras to keep cops honest

After the Bombay High Court pulled up the state government as well as contractors for not installing CCTV cameras at police stations by March 2022, the state has installed 30 now. One third of the total police stations in the city now have CCTV cameras installed inside and on their premises. Work is on to install them at other police stations soon.

There have been demands for CCTV cameras in police stations, especially in detection rooms and lock-ups, as sometimes citizens complain of high-handedness and police brutality. It was also seen that many complainants who come to register their plea end up having heated arguments with police officers. To monitor all this constantly in police stations, they were asked to install CCTV cameras.

According to the Supreme Court, CCTV cameras should be placed at all the entries and exits  of police stations, in lock-ups and even in the rooms of all the officials. The in charge of the police station will be held accountable for the functioning of the CCTV and nodal officers should be designated for maintenance of the cameras.

The CCTV cameras will ensure that police stations are monitored constantly. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

“There are CCTV cameras in police stations but they are private and installed by police officials themselves. Many times senior inspectors or officers themselves install cameras outside their cabins. The process to set up cameras is on in full swing and the first phase of 30 cameras has been completed recently,” said a senior police officer. There are 94 police stations in Mumbai and all will have CCTV cameras installed.

According to police sources, five to six police stations from each region (the city has six regions) have been selected for CCTV cameras installation in the first phase, and the cameras have become functional. Work for the rest of the police stations will be completed by April end. 

The Bombay High Court on March 16 had said it will seek CCTV camera footage from random police stations in Maharashtra to ascertain whether the cameras have been repaired within stipulated time and are operational. A division bench of Justices Shahrukh J Kathawalla and Milind N Jadhav had  pulled up the two contractors involved, after it was informed that 701 of the CCTV cameras installed are non-functional and that the contractors were paid for them.

While a work order was issued in November 2020, the work was to be completed by April this year. Contractors Sujata Computers Private Limited from Pune (this company installed the cameras in Mumbai police stations) and Javi Systems India Private Limited from Bengaluru (this company installed CCTVs in the rest of the state) were selected to execute the project, which included maintenance of the CCTVs and instruments for five years from August 6, 2021.

94
No. of police stations in Mumbai where the CCTVs will be installed

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