With public outcry over safety of women getting shriler, UP Police responded by deciding to equip the personnel with state-of-the-art technology. To ensure safer atmosphere for women, the DGP headquarters decided that personnel attached to anti-Romeo squads and traffic police will be given 25,000 body-worn cameras. Besides, investigators will also be provided post-mortem kits and 5,000 tablets along with 15,000 desktops with better access to Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS).
The decisions were approved by DGP OP Singh and will be completed during the current fiscal year.
In fact, the Lucknow police have already started identifying ‘dark spots’ in the city and areas where women are prone to be targeted by sexual offeders.
Time and again, the UP Police personnel have found themselves on the worng end of the stick in terms of lack of proper equipment. Videos of cops mimicking staccato of gunshots during encounter owing to jammed sidearms were one of the many incidents that led the country to suspect that the world’s largest police force was in immediate need of a thorough overhaul.
Another video that had viewers in split surfaced earlier this year. It showed constables using battons as dummy horses during an emergency drill at Mirzapur Police Lines.
Besides, rising number of cases from the state where rape or molestation survivors chose to commit suicide citing police inaction also spurred public angst and sullied the image of the police.
Police departments in other states like Kerala and Karnataka have equipped their sentinels with body-worn cameras and other equipment to ensure better policing and faster resolution of cases.