If you’ve broken any traffic laws in Tirupati, you’re fair game for the town’s traffic police. They’re going to name and shame you on their YouTube channel, complete with name and number plate, for all to see just how wanted you are.
For the past year, a small team of the Tirupati district police has taken to using CCTV footage to name and shame the traffic violators.
Here's an example.
Last December, DGP JV Ramudu inaugurated the Police Command and Control Centre. “That's when we decided to start the videos," says the officer, who manages the YouTube account along with the police's Facebook page and website. The operation is fully backed by the Superintendent of Police, Gopinath Jetty.
The centre also has a state-of-the-art surveillance facility, consisting of a traffic signalling system supplemented by a centralized public address system and a video wall consisting of 9x48 inch Full HD commercial LED monitors.
"The main idea behind this was to create awareness. We first thought that we would just post videos of accidents and general awareness campaigns. However, we realized that defaulters like those who indulge in triple riding and cellphone driving were also a huge concern," the officer who wished to remain anonymous stated.
So, the idea came about to name and shame.
The officer also adds that he is in fact a "simple constable with a zeal for IT," and has personally trained a small group, who work as the IT team for the police and also help in recovering lost baggage, identifying thefts, forwarding footage of defaulters to the concerned department for e-challans and a number of other things, all by monitoring CCTV footage.
"We will complete one year of posting these videos soon, and we have more than 30 lakh views in total. We are also up to date with innovative methods used by defaulters," he remarks.
Has this helped in anyway? "Though we can't take full credit, accidents have decreased over the past year and people are more aware about the consequences of their actions once a challan turns up," the officer says.
For now, the page will continue functioning in the same way and we will look for better ideas to increase awareness, he adds.