CCTV cameras help Aurangabad police crack 70 cases

AURANGABAD: The city police have managed to crack 70 crucial cases this year with the help of CCTV cameras, forcing the authorities to give a serious thought of curbing the criminal activities in the city.
According to the data received by crime branch, the police have managed to crack 22 house breaking cases, 12 robbery cases, 29 cases of theft, four cases of accidental fire, a murder case and four other offences.
Commenting on the issue, city police chief Chiranjeev Prasad said, “The high number of detection with the help of CCTV cameras should be the reason for NGOs, citizens as well as traders to come forward and install CCTV cameras at their respective premises.”
The officer also appealed to install CCTV cameras at privately owned properties as well as at public places by taking the civic body in confidence. He maintained that in several incidents, the presence of CCTV cameras at certain locations have helped the police in preventing the registration of false offences.
Deputy commissioner of police (zone-II) Nikesh Khatmode Patil said that there have been incidents in the past, when people attempting to settle their personal scores, have lodged false complaints. “Such complainants stood exposed, as the place of incident mentioned in the complaint had CCTV cameras, which not only prevented registration of false offence but also unwanted harassment of innocent people,” said the officer.
Sources informed that the police are in the process of identifying all government as well as private premises having CCTV cameras and soon these parties would be roped in for assisting the city police with all the footages captured by the CCTV cameras installed at their buildings.
An officer privy to the initiative said that CCTV cameras installed under the safe city project, are found facing technical glitches and the delay in restoring their services have often made things difficult for the city police on various fronts.
Recently, over 90 percent of the cameras installed under the safe project were found lying defunct for weeks together, while the city police’s plea to restore them fell on deaf ears.