The police view the CCTVs connected to a large screen in the police station, through an underground cable.
Residents of Chennai's Madipakkam locality have pooled and spend lakhs of rupees to install high-definition closed circuit cameras in their area and connected them with a police station 11 km away, through an underground cable. All this, to get the police to check rising crime in the area.
The police monitor the camera output on a big screen round the clock.
The area in south Chennai, which was notorious for chain snatching, has seen drop in crime over the last two months since the system was put in place.
Police Inspector Saravanan, who came up with the idea, says, "Earlier, we had at least five chain snatching cases every month. This has come down to one. We were also able to recover forty sovereigns of gold with the help of clues the images gave (us)."
The area's residents are happy too. "We feel more secure now," says Rukmani Ramachandran, whose sister's gold jewellery was snatched. Another resident says, "Many men used to drink around the lake here and tease women." That, he says, has ended.
The money came in from individual sponsors and resident associations. S Swaminathan, who heads the Sheela Nagar Residents' Association, said, "We can't expect the government to do everything. This is a partnership with the police as part of community policing. We are going to add two more cameras now."
Encouraged by the results, the police hope residents in other areas too would come forward to replicate the model.