It is wrong to chase motorists: Traffic officials

Chasing errant motorists or stopping them by standing in the middle of the road is a wrong method, a top traffic police official said.

“During meetings, we have been telling them (police constables on duty) not to indulge in such acts,” MM Mahadevaiah, deputy commissioner police (traffic-west), said.

The issue will be taken up in the coming meetings, he said.
He was reacting to the case of a helmetless scooterist Jay Krishna, who was allegedly chased to his death by two city police constables on Sunday.

Additional commissioner of police (traffic) MA Saleem did not agree with Mahadevaiah.

 “The question whether the police were wrong or the motorist can be decided only by a court. Sometimes, at least, we have to check vehicles. Otherwise, it will lead to lawlessness in the city,” he said.
“Police constables will take photos (of traffic violations) using their digital camera and sub-inspectors will collect the spot fines,” he said.

After the Lokayukta police raids on city traffic police three months ago, it was decided to phase out the use of Blackberrys for fine collection. Since then, traffic police were depending on CCTV cameras and digital cameras.

But over the past two weeks, Blackberrys were back in use as police stood on roads to stop traffic offenders.

The rounds made by DNA confirmed this. We even found that traffic police officials were stopping motorists without any reason and asking them to produce documents of the vehicle.
In some cases, the traffic police were found trespassing their jurisdiction for penalising motorists.

Senior traffic officials said such checks were carried out to identify four-wheelers that were still using tinted glasses.
Saleem, who wanted Blackberrys to be phased out, said spot fines were being collected through Blackberrys.
However, motorists are not unnecessarily stopped or harassed, he said.

According to him, at least 60% of the traffic offences are booked with the help of CCTV cameras. The rest of the cases are tackled using Blackberrys.

“In the next two years, we will completely phase out Blackberrys,” Saleem said.