Watch out! Traffic police can now dig up your past crimes

Watch out! Traffic police can now dig up your past crimes
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Motorists in Bangalore now have reason to worry. Armed with Simputers, the traffic police will now have at their fingertips, records of vehicles on city roads which will enable them to identify motorists who repeatedly violate rules. The habitual offender can even have his driving licence suspended.

On Monday, Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh launched Simputer online connectivity, the second phase of the programme started in 2004.

According to DCP Traffic East, M A Saleem, a database comprising records of 22 lakh vehicles registered in the city has been created.

The working of the system is like this:

Each of the 30 traffic police stations in the city have been issued a hand-held Simputer. When the traffic police stop a motorist for an offence, they can connect to the server and access information about the particular vehicle and how many offences it has been involved in.

The police can identify repeated offenders and impose enhanced penalty, which means you have to pay thrice the fine amount.

There is more trouble in store for rash drivers. The system will also help the police track down vehicles owners who have defaulted and not responded to police notices sent to them.

“There are already around two lakh notices pending,'' Saleem said. If a motorist is caught now, and the Simputer reveals that a previous fine has not been paid he will have to cough that up first.

During the launch on Monday, the police stopped a car and an auto rickshaw, which turned out to have 10 and 6 notices against their registration numbers.

The traffic police have records of offenders from the year 2003 and 150 policemen have been trained to use the Simputer. In incidents where the motorist has been repeatedly involved in cases of rash driving and has caused injury, the police will initiate action to suspend their driving licences.

“Over the past four months, we have written to the Transport Department seeking suspension of 568 licences. Five licenses were suspended last month,'' Additional Commissioner, Traffic, K V Ravindranath Tagore told this website’s newspaper.

“Speeding is the cause in 82 per cent of fatal and non-fatal road accidents, while overtaking from left accounts for nearly 15 per cent,'' Tagore said, emphasising the need to be strict on repeated offenders.

The online connectivity is being touted as the first in India and the software has been developed by Doxport Software Pvt Ltd.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which had donated the 30 Simputers, will hand over 30 more to the police department soon, Tagore said.