Extra vigilant traffic cops go hi-tech with Blackberry

Under the hi-tech project,the traffic police will be able to maintain a history of all traffic violators as well as vehicles. The project was flagged off in the presence of State Energy and Water Resources Minister Ajit Pawar at Yashada. The project was immediately put to test as a mock action was also taken against one car driver,who had put a fancy number plate on his car.

The Science and Technology Park (STP),Omni Bridge Systems Pvt Ltd,Vodafone and Blackberry have jointly launched the project. Apart from catching and fining repeated offenders,the project aims at increasing revenue collection through fines,faster identification of stolen vehicles and exchange of data. Though the project is initially meant for three months,it will slowly be implemented across the state.

At the inauguration function,Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manoj Patil said,“Under the project,the traffic cops will be equipped with blackberry mobile phones. Once a person is caught violating traffic rules like jumping a signal or standing on the zebra crossing mark,we will be able to produce a record of traffic violations on the spot and can see how many times he had been caught for such offences. The purpose is to inculcate a sense of traffic discipline among people.”

The traffic police will also be given bluetooth thermal printer. Once a traffic violator is caught,the vehicle’s registration number or name of the offender will be sent to the server via the phone. The server will give the past data about traffic violations that will be stored on a computer server on a daily basis. While issuing a receipt for paying fine,details of the offence,offender,vehicle number,time and date will be fed to server.

“Insurance companies have also approached us saying they would like to take into consideration the past record of a person,if he wants to get a mediclaim policy. If the record is bad,they might charge more premium amount and decrease the claim amount,” Patil said.

Police commissioner Satyapal Singh,CEO of STP Rajendra Jagdale,head of National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board H K Mittal were also present.