Out of focus? Street cams come under cops’ scanner

Gurgaon: The CCTV network for surveillance and traffic monitorin6g in Gurgaon has now come under the scanner of the Gurgaon

police

.

At a recent meeting with top GMDA officials, the Gurgaon police commissioner raised concerns over the ability of the CCTV

cameras

to read the number plates of vehicles at several locations in the city, TOI has learnt. Though a committee has been constituted to examine the shortcomings of the CCTV system in the city, GMDA officials say some cameras had focussing issues, and the matter has largely been resolved.

As of now, more than 1,000 artificial intelligence-enabled CCTV cameras have been installed at 201 locations under the smart city project. These cameras are connected to the integrated command and control centre through an optical fibre network. A team of cops regularly monitor the feed from these cameras for any violations and issue them challans. The process of issuing challans is also being automated.

But with the number plates not being visible, the Gurgaon police claim that the project hasn’t been as effective so far. “The commissioner of Gurgaon police said that it was not possible to read vehicle number plates/detect crimes at various junctions where cameras were provided under the CCTV project,” according to a copy of the minutes of the meeting.

GMDA officials, however, said that the committee has already carried out inspections at the sites of the cameras and the matter has been largely resolved. “It was an issue of focusing the cameras for better picture quality. We were still in installation mode when the matter was raised. It has now been resolved,” said a senior GMDA official.

When asked about the concerns over the resolution of the cameras, he said that even a 2-megapixel camera can read the number plates, the cameras installed under the project are 4-5 megapixels. “When we launched the project, we started with the best technology, but in the last two years it has advanced,” said the official.

A officer, who oversees the CCTV project, concurred with the GMDA official and said that the issue has been largely resolved. As part of its smart city project, GMDA was supposed to install some 1,200 cameras by April this year. However, the project has been slightly delayed.


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