Karnataka Police initiates CCTV camera geotagging process to help detect crime

Mangaluru: To help detect crime activities and investigate crime instances in a fast-track mode, the Karnataka Police has decided to go for geotagging lakhs of CCTV cameras across the state.

As per the Karnataka Public Safety Measures Enforcement Act, 2017 CCTV cameras are mandatory in the areas/buildings/complexes where there is frequent to and for movement of more than 500 people or at a time movement of 100 people.

Currently, the police department has decided to geotag those cameras which are functional in public places.

This geotagging system works under an app of the police department. It uses Geographic Information System (GES) to gather information about where the CCTV cameras are placed, the direction it is facing to, their storage capacity, etc. Any incident that occurs where this system is in place, will immediately alert the police. The police will also be inspecting the camera locations and their functioning on a monthly basis.

Mangaluru is the second city to have incorporated most of the CCTV camera geotagging system, after Bengaluru.

In the Mangaluru Police Commissionerate jurisdiction, there are well over 30,000 CCTV cameras, and in Dakshina Kannada Police jurisdiction around 2,000.

In Bengaluru, including the subdivisions, there are more than 1.5 lahk geotagged CCTV cameras.

Similarly, in Belagavi – 25,000, Kalaburagi – 12,000, Mysuru – 10,000, and Hassan – 2,400.

Under the Safe City scheme, Karnataka Police has decided to install 98 new CCTV cameras at a cost of Rs. 1 crore at cities namely, Gulbarga, Hubbali-Dharwad, Mysuru, Belagavi, and Mangaluru.

In Mangaluru alone 47 locations have been identified for the installation of new CCTV cameras under the scheme.

This will help the police in live tracking.

Karnataka DG/IGP Praveen Sood said, “The directions on geotagging CCTV cameras are given, according to which the process is paced up across the state in all the district police and Commissionerate jurisdictions.”

Mangaluru DCP Anshu Kumar Srivastav said, “Maximum number of CCTV cameras have been geotagged in Mangaluru city, which has helped us in investigating the matters in fast-track mode. Apart from this, the Karnataka Police has decided to install 128 CCTV cameras in the city for which the government has sanctioned Rs. 1 crore. At first, 98 cameras will be installed in the month of January 2023. Concerned contractors have been given a three-year contract to maintain them.”

By Santosh Bollettu