Buoyed by the impact of drones in terms of better enforcement of the lockdown, the Vadodara city police has urged citizens to lend their personal drones to the city police, so as to deploy more of them for effective surveillance. At present, the Vadodara city police has a total of 11 drone surveillance cameras which are used at a stretch of three to four hours at least twice a day. "At present, we have 11 drones that have come handy for effective implementation of the lockdown and enforcing curfew in lanes and bylanes in various parts of the city. To further enhance the surveillance, we thought of borrowing drones from individuals who are willing to lend them to us. We have our own operators; if the owners specifically want to operate their drones, then we can facilitate that too. The respective Deputy Commissioners of Police of the four zones are coordinating with the respective police stations under their jurisdiction for the surveillance," said Anupamsinh Gahlaut, Vadodara City Police Commissioner. Urging the same, a tweet from the official handle of the Vadodara city police read, "Dear citizens, If any of you have drones and want to support us, you can contact us through direct message. If you have innovative ideas for enforcement of lockdown, you can share with us." To improve the effective monitoring of the movement of residents to contain the spread of COVID-19, the police has deployed drone cameras for surveillance in the entire city. They have also cracked down on groups playing cricket inside residential societies, gathering in large numbers within societies and even individuals wandering out with no valid purpose. "The prohibitory orders are also for inside residential premises. We keep getting calls from concerned citizens regarding unwanted gatherings or violation of the prohibitory orders and social distancing inside residential complexes. We address these complaints by sending our teams there or also through drone cameras. Through the video and images, we are able to identify the offenders and book them," Gahlaut added. As of Tuesday, the Vadodara city police has booked and arrested 66 people under 33 cases of lockdown violations through drone surveillance. Another 74 persons were arrested through CCTV camera surveillance. Till date, the Vadodara police has booked 129 cases of lockdown violation and arrested 215 people in total.
