TOI: Repeat offenders beware traffic cops go digital: December 17, 2008

The party’s over for habitual traffic offenders in the city. From January 2009, traffic police across Mumbai will be able to access a database listing previous offences by motorists, in a matter of minutes. Fines will be levied accordingly. This system, which till date is followed only for drunken driving, will now be set in place for all offences, however minor. According to officials, the RTO will also have the power to disqualify licences in the case of habitual offenders.

   The traffic police is already in the process of collating and keying in offences and details of motorists who have been booked over the last five years, into the central database, which will be updated with recent offences on a daily basis. Traffic policemen will be able to access this wealth of information from every police chowk or via a GPRS-enabled cellphone that will be provided to all the cops. 

   This will make a huge difference in the penal actions taken against motorists who have been committing the same offence repeatedly, but had gotten away by paying petty fines. “Many traffic offences, be it helmetless driving, rash and negligent driving, and so on, are still on a higher side in the city, as motorists think they can get away by paying paltry fines. But this database will enable us to impose tougher penalties,’’ said joint commissioner of police (Traffic) Sanjay Barve. He added that traffic rules and regulations in countries like Singapore and the US are strictly implemented; if a motorist is found to be a repeat offender, his track record is reflected in his licence. “Here, we do not have this kind of data available. That is the reason why we are installing this software in all traffic police chowkies so that policing in the city becomes more efficient,’’ he said. 

   A total of 20.8 lakh traffic offences were registered against motorists in the last 11 months. “We are sure that many of them are repeat and habitual offenders, but we cannot take any action against them as we do not have data for second- and third-time offenders . But now, things are going to change,’’ said a traffic police official. 

   There are, however, some snags that have to be addressed before the system becomes foolproof. The police have yet to be provided with cardreaders so that the details of repeat offences can be deciphered from the smart-card licences.

   Another hitch is that not all motorists in the city have switched to using smart-card “We have now developed our own database and will be sending these details on a regular basis to the Regional Transport Authority (RTO) office. We hope that the transport department will provide the police with the card readers.’’

The long arm of the law

All traffic chowkies will have computers that will allow policemen to log into a central database to access key information on any motorist. Every policeman will be given a personal id to enter the database. Alternatively, the cop can access this information on his cellphone by sending an SMS to the main server. They will also be equipped with GPRS-activated phones. Motorists will be booked accordingly for his repeat offence. All offences will be keyed in to the database at the end of the day. “The database from all chowkies will be updated every night,’’ said a senior traffic official.

What this means

* It’s not just drunk driving offences that will come up on the database

* Information will accessed by the traffic police via the cellphone or from a laptop located at every chowk

* The RTO will have the power to revoke licences

Your past will return to haunt you

Mumbai: If all goes as planned, the next time you’re pulled up by the traffic police in 2009, chances are they will already have the goods on you.

Law enforcers attached with the traffic police headquarters at Worli are currently engaged in the mammoth task of compiling and keying in data comprising all the traffic offences committed by city motorists in the last five years into the central database. “It is a huge task, but it will make all the difference. Currently, we do not have any history of offences committed by a motorist on the tips of our fingers. So it has been difficult to track down repeat or habitual offenders,’’ said a senior traffic police official.

He added: “As of now, we have to manually go through the data, and it takes days to find out if a person was a repeat offender or not.’’

This database will ready within a month or so, and the police on the road will be able to penalise a motorist accordingly.

TOTAL NUMBER OF OFFENDERS BOOKED FROM JANUARY TO NOVEMBER 2008

Breaking a signal 2,53,280

Cutting lanes 80,718

Driving without helmet 5,27,498

Rash and negligent driving 5,103

Driving without a seat belt 47,880

Drunken driving 14,823

Use of cellphones 2,251

Excessive honking 36,357

Speeding  14,556

Illegal parking 6,10,680

URL: http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA4LzEyLzE3I0FyMDA5MDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom