In a move to track the stolen vehicles entering the city, the traffic police are installing special Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras at all the entry points of the city. The cameras will alert the police about any such vehicles entering the city enabling cops to prevent its entry and impounding the vehicle at the location itself. Recently, a jeweller from Dahisar was shot dead by three assailants who used a stolen scooter on the day of the murder.
According to the traffic officials, nearly 60 ANPR cameras will be installed at all the entry points. As soon as any suspected vehicles enters, an alert will be sounded to nearby traffic chowkis as well as traffic police stations and the vehicle will be stopped at the next check point. If a vehicle escaped nakabandi the police will have to do manual tracking, said an official.
Once the vehicle has been intercepted, the police will check its credentials and there are high chances that the vehicle will be taken to nearby police station along with it's occupants for further verification as well as for investigation.
"The cameras will be connected to a software which will be further connected to Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) to keep itself updated with the latest stolen car numbers from the city as well as in the state, " said Yashasvi Yadav, joint commissioner of Mumbai police (traffic).
The police are also working to improvise the ANPR camera system to enable them to recognise the cars of which number plates have been tampered. The project will start operational since Monday on pilot basis and changes will be made accordingly.
The hi-tech CCTV cameras equipped with the ANPR feature will also help to register offences and issue e-challans to the motorists found flouting the traffic rules. The number of violations recorded have been on rise due to the hi-tech CCTV cameras installed with the ANPR feature, which is a positive trend to reduce the number of violations with effective enforcement against risk factors such as improper use of helmets, seat belts, speeding, drunk driving, said officials.
