One of the schools of thought for controlling crimes in high crime zones in urban areas around the world is to create the impression of an ubiquitous police force — or, in other words, tricking criminals into believing that the police are all around and there is no getting away. In Bengaluru where road traffic problems are a cause of bigger concern than high crime rates, the city’s understaffed police force has hit upon an idea to create the impression of the traffic policeman being an ubiquitous presence on the streets by using traffic police mannequins. Over the past few weeks, some 30 traffic police mannequins have been deployed during the day at heavy traffic junctions in the city by the Bengaluru police to put the fear of the police in the hearts of traffic law violators. At junctions where traffic jams occur every day, a real traffic policeman now controls traffic, while mannequins create an impression of the presence of many traffic policemen. The deployment of traffic police mannequins — dressed in the uniform of the Bengaluru traffic police — has been described by the city’s Police Commissioner as the first step in deploying high technology for policing the streets, but the regular traffic policeman thinks it is just a scarecrow. According to official records, the Bengaluru traffic police have a sanctioned strength of 5,262 personnel to regulate traffic across 44,000 intersections, but they are 600 short of the sanctioned strength. “It is just a strategy to prevent traffic offences — like triple riding on two wheelers, riding without helmets or driving without seat belts, or using cell phones while riding or driving — even when there are no policemen at the traffic signals,” a police constable manning a traffic junction in the central business district of Bengaluru said, regarding a mannequin planted on the traffic island in the area. “These are just dummies — in the end they do not perform any roles, and a policeman still needs to control the traffic,” the traffic constable said. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, however, said that the police mannequins are part of a plan to bring in robotic technologies into policing the traffic in the IT capital of the country. “The mannequins are the first or a crude form of promoting technology. They will later have cameras fitted for the eyes — for both day vision and night vision. The mannequins will be connected to an artificial intelligence based software system to record and recall what is being seen on the streets, and provide alerts to officers. Later on, there will be robotics incorporated in the system, which will change the structure of the mannequin itself,” the Police Commissioner said. “We have several plans to leverage the kind of technologies available in Bangalore itself. This is just a first step,” according to Rao. Since taking over as the Bengaluru Police Commissioner in August this year, Rao has attempted multiple innovations — from employing masseurs at some police stations to ease the pains of traffic policemen, to deploying the “pedal police”, or police on bicycles, in areas like the central Cubbon Park, as well as creating crèches and play areas for children at police stations to reduce the negativity attached to the image of the police force in general. In police stations with large areas — where the properties belong to the police department itself — like the Koramangala police station in the south east of Bengaluru, the police have created a colourful play area-cum-crèche for kids, with walls painted with images of popular cartoon characters. “There are many young mothers in the police department who don’t have a support system to take care of children when they work long or unpredictable hours. The department does not shut shop at 5 pm and go home, and staff have to work irregular hours. If the child is at the police station itself, then she gets to see the child while doing her work even if it is late. More and more women are being recruited in the police and this will give them a sense of comfort,” Commissioner Rao said. According to local police officers at the Koramangala police station where a play area has been created on the premises, the kids’ zone is also an attempt to soften the image of the police among school children who are sometimes brought from surrounding schools. “There is a sense of fear of the police, and people are often reluctant to go to police stations to report cases as a consequence. A fearsome image of the police is also created among children since people try to discipline them using images of the scary policeman. We are hoping that when they visit our station and spend time in the kids’ area some of their fears will go away,” a police officer said.
