Thoothukudi District Police get modern control room getting signals from state-of-the-art cameras; vehicles’ registration numbers, travellers can easily be identified

A state-of-the-art control room that receives signals from the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and Varifocal Lens Cameras fitted at six places of the district to record the registration numbers of vehicles moving at high speed and identify the travellers round-the-clock was inaugurated in the District Police Office on Tuesday.

In the presence of Superintendent of Police Albert John and Additional Collector (Development) R. Aishwarya, District Collector K. Elambahavath inaugurated the technologically upgraded control room on Tuesday.

As the police have installed ANPR and Varifocal Lens Cameras at Kodangipatti, Vembar, Thottilovanpatti, Paruthikulam, Seydunganallur and Idaichivilai, all the places located on the Thoothukudi district’s border with other neighbouring districts, the visuals received from these cameras can be monitored in real-time in the upgraded control room at the District Police Office.

With these advanced ANPR cameras, the police can get clear photos of registration number plates of the vehicles zooming along the highways while the law-enforcers can zoom with clarity the visuals received from the Varifocal Lens cameras to identify the people travelling in the vehicles moving even at high speed.

“Since we’ve installed these cameras on the important roads through which thousands of vehicles are entering and leaving the district, the police can have a complete monitoring over these vehicles round-the-clock,” said Mr. Albert John.

Moreover, the control room will also monitor the movement of police vehicles, including the bikes and the four-wheelers fitted with GPS.

“If we get any information or complaint from the public about an escaping vehicle, we’ll alert the police patrol teams, which would rush to the spot or chase the fleeing vehicle. We can monitor the patrol team’s movement on the live navigation map in the control room. Moreover, this control room will be the nerve centre for the messages being shared by the police on the field through their wireless sets and other communication gadgets and instantly receive visuals from the drones being used during the festivals and large gatherings for taking appropriate action for crowd management,” Mr. Albert John explained.

In the next phase, the Thoothukudi District Police have planned to install the ANPR cameras at more places including the check-posts, important junctions of the district, accident-prone areas etc.

The cameras and the allied infrastructure have been incorporated at the cost of ₹25 lakh released from the District Collector’s Mineral Resources Fund.