Bribing a Traffic Cop? Smile, you could be on camera!
Unfortunately, bribing a traffic cop is a pretty common practice here to escape heavy challan amounts or even impounding of the vehicle. Well, both the road users and the cops are responsible for this malpractice. While cops try to earn an extra buck through taking bribes, road users find it easy to bribe a cop and escape heavy penalties. It’s a win-win situation for both the parties, right?
Wrong! Bribing a cop has two major implications – First, bribing and corruption go hand in hand and bribery is not only immoral but also hurts the revenues that a state earns. Moreover, road users that encourage bribery pay lesser heed to the rules and regulations as they know of an easy way out. However, soon, all this will come to a full-stop. Traffic policemen of various states will soon carry body cameras that will stream live recordings of their interaction with road users to the control room. Hence, it will become too tough for them to accept bribes. While the police department of Chandigarh has already equipped some of its traffic cops with these cameras, departments in other states have accepted the tender of the bidder from whom the cameras would be procured.
These body cameras for the traffic cops will surely ensure transparency in their work. Of course, it will also get more difficult for the motorists to offer briber. Even the instances of erring motorists arguing with the police are also likely to come down.Moreover, thanks to these body cameras, the cops will have a huge evidence in the form of the video capturde by the cameras of motorists who have made an error.
Speaking on these body cameras, Ravinder Kumar Singal, Commissioner of Police, Nashik, has said”Our aim is to make maximum use of technology to bring efficiency and transparency in the working of the police. The body cameras, high-tech towing van, e-challan system, the QRT system are among various things implemented in the past couple of years by the police.”
Image- IndiaToday
