Bangalore cops play safe, film drunk drivers

Bangalore: The Bangalore Traffic police is playing it safe when it comes to dealing with the city's drunken drivers. For the past one month traffic police has been recording all the interactions with drunk drivers, who are stopped at check posts and booked for offences.

In this new drive, a constable with a handycam records the process of checking, which includes taking an alcometre reading, asking for documents, producing the challan and presenting it to the offender.

This step is being taken to avoid later accusations of misconduct against the police and has been effective in taking action against false complaints.

The procurement of these cameras started three years ago and according to sources, the high end cameras cost approximately Rs 40,000 each.

"These tapes have been useful in countering false allegations of police brutality or aggression made by people who don't agree to pay the fine," said M C Kavitha, Inspector.

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She added that people tend to be more conscious of their behaviour when they know they are being taped and make no attempts to argue with the police.

"Assaults on traffic policemen have reduced drastically ever since we started taping drunk drivers. This has also helped in transparency with our dealings with traffic offenders," said M A Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security).

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He added that the videos are stored with the traffic police and are produced only in case of a complaint being filed against the police.