Chandigarh police reply to RTI: CCTV cameras at police stations, police posts developed snags 13,699 times in past 5 years

The complaints about the faulty CCTV cameras were received at the communication wing of the Chandigarh Police between January 2017 and May 2022. The wing has been maintaining the CCTV cameras installed at the police stations and police posts since 2014.

Sources said the faults included non-functioning of cameras, no recording by the camera, footage not being stored and replacement of the camera.

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“Prior to 2014, Chandigarh Police had the annual maintenance contract with the companies which installed the CCTV cameras. The contract was terminated in 2014 giving the responsibility to the communication wing for the maintenance of these cameras,” said a communication wing officer requesting anonymity. As per the RTI reply, a maximum of 12 cameras were installed at Sector 34 police station, followed by 10 cameras at Sector 17 police station, Maloya each, eight cameras at Sector 26, Mauli Jagran, and six cameras at Sector 19, Sector 11, Sector 3, Mani Majra, Sector 36, Sector 39, and Sector 31 police station each. Four CCTV cameras were installed at Sector 49, IT Park and Women Cell police station, Sector 17, each. As for police posts, a maximum of eight cameras were installed at Sukhna Lake police post. The least number of CCTV cameras — three —were installed at Sector 61 police post and Daria police post each.

SP (city) Shruti Arora said, “CCTV cameras are technology-based which can develop a snag at any time. We maintain data of complaints about the cameras and rectify the faults as per procedure. It is a transparent system.