Blackberry for traffic offenders

Blackberry for traffic offenders
Nina C George
The Black Berry will ensure transparency in the police department. The police can’t tamper with the system or charge more than the stipulated amount for the offence and can’t negotiate with the culprit. It will also keep a check on repeat offenders.

Two years ago the when Bangalore City’s traffic police started wielding simputers, the palm-top PCs, it appeared that the days of violating traffic rules with impunity were finally numbered. And, there was a considerable reduction in the number of traffic violations and consequently accidents as the traffic police personnel turned simputer-savvy.

Two years hence, it looks like zero tolerance of traffic violations appears imminent, thanks to the Blackberry, a revised and upgraded form of simputer. For, the Blackberry will not only instill the fear of the law in habitual offenders, but also nail the black sheep among the men and women in the uniform.

However, things will fall into place only when the end users — the traffic policemen on the road — are trained to use them.



Transparency

“The Black Berry will ensure transparency in the police department. The police can’t tamper with the system or charge more than the stipulated amount for the offence and can’t negotiate with the culprit. It will also keep a check on repeat offenders. With this, we hope to bring about some systemic changes,” M A Saleem, DCP (East) says and adds, “the people will surely be spared of police harassment.”



Online connectivity

What makes the Black Berry different from the simputer is that it provides direct online connectivity to the central server. Information keyed in will immediately get transmitted to the server which in turn records the violations and acts as a ready reckoner of previous offences committed by the same person. So if you are a habitual offender, be sure you won’t escape the clutches of law.

The Blackberry will have different slots such as code, name of the offender, vehicle number, fine amount, violation codes, location and date. It also has an inbuilt printer that will help the police handover a challan then and there to the offender.

To begin with, offences such as signal jumping, driving without helmets, drunken driving, parking in no parking zones and other such visible offences will come under Blackberry.

“If we spot a repeat offender we have the authority to recommend that his or her licence be suspended,” says Saleem.

Bangalore City Police Commissioner Neelam Achuta Rao is appreciative of the new project. He says that the Blackberry will surely keep offenders from getting away or indulging in violations.

“It will help us record the present violations and the previous violations will also be displayed. This will help us track repeat offenders, instill a sense of fear and give them a feeling that they are being watched,” says he.

The Blackberry software and online connectivity has been developed for the City police by Airtel.

Saleem says that the Blackberry will be given to those carrying the Inspector and Sub Inspector ranks. About 250 police officers will be trained in the coming days to handle the device.

The next time you zip around the City’s roads, make sure you pay attention to the rules as well.