Traffic cops to be Blackberry boys soon

The Traffic cops of Belgaum will soon become Blackberry boys as they would given the Blackberry handsets similar to that their counterparts are using from a couple of years in Bangalore.

Known as the BlackBerry Assisted Traffic Enforcement project, 10 officers have been trained for using the same and by 15 June we could see them fine violators using the device.

To begin with CPI Traffic, Traffic sub inspectors, assistant police sub inspectors will be given the handsets and each system which includes a blue-tooth printer costs around Rs.50,000.

The new system will enable real time monitoring of traffic enforcement, bring in transparency, eliminate discretion and reduce possibility of malpractice. The initiative brings together all aspects of traffic policing and is capable of pulling out data on more than 2 million cases in less than 2 minutes.

Advantages of the new system:
On the spot fine collection and receipt

Cases booked are stored in the server and repeated offenders can be identified
For those who can not pay spot fines notices are issued and the details are put up on the servers.

Registration database from transport department linked up to Automated Enforcement Centre

The Blackberry devices will be on-line and will be connected to a central server. Just by entering the license number the traffic cops can access the database of the traffic offenders, their offense history and penalize habitual offenders accordingly. One cannot tamper with the penalty amount as the penalty amount will be decided before hand and fed into the device based on the nature of violation. Habitual traffic offenders, take note. Henceforth, you can’t go scot-free for subsequent traffic violations as city traffic police are going hi-tech to crack down on offenders.