Surat Police Control Room Flooded with 36K daily calls

Surat, Gujarat – Believe it or not. The dial 100 police control room number is receiving about 600 calls per hour and about 36,000 calls in 24 hours, of which about 30% calls are not related to police. This was revealed by Surat Police commissioner Anupam Singh Gahlaut, while addressing a meeting on ‘Smart policing for safe and resilient Surat citizen partnership’ organised by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI). 

According to Gahlaut, about 30% of the calls received at the police control room in Surat are related to road, street and water problems. The control room staff make all their efforts to resolve the complaints of the citizens by coordinating with different departments and the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). 

SGCCI president Nikhil Madrasi said Surat city is continuously scaling new heights of development, and smart policing is the need of the hour in terms of security and law and order. It is necessary to develop a technology-based system in collaboration with the police system. 

Gahlaut said that the Indian Police Act was enacted in 1861. Mainly three responsibilities were assigned to the police, which include maintenance of law and order, prevention and detection of crime and traffic regulation. The earlier laws were made by the British government, which were not public oriented. Gradually the laws became public oriented and different services for the police were also included in them.

He explained the meaning of smart explained to the police by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that S means strict for criminals and sensitive for people, M means modern and mobility (modernized system), A means alert and attending, R means response and responsible and T means trained and tax savvy. The police will have to train themselves continuously. Efforts will have to be made to become tech-savvy to combat crimes like cybercrime and narcotics.

Surat is one of the largest cities in the country, excluding the capital cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. Given the rapidly growing population of Surat city, the development of industries and the issues emerging at the international level, it has become extremely necessary to implement smart, technology-based and people-based policing instead of traditional policing. The police are a visible part of the government. When an incident occurs, the police are the first to reach the spot, and the rest of the departments work in coordination later.

Apart from this, 40 percent of the total calls from Pandesara, Udhna, Limbayat and Unn areas come to 100 numbers. Surat Police keeps a watchful eye on anti-social elements in the city through means like digital surveillance, data analytics, forensic technology and emergency response systems, so that peace is maintained in the society.

The Police Commissioner said that currently there are about 25 AI-based cameras in Surat city. Trials are currently being conducted through artificial intelligence, after which AI will be added to other cameras. AI-based cameras detect vehicles crossing the road despite the red signal and generate automatic challans. Last year, about 9 lakh challans were generated. This included wrong side, over speeding, crossing the road despite the red light and drivers without helmets. This year, 9 lakh challans have been generated in just six months. The purpose of making motorcycle riders wear helmets is only to save their lives in road accidents and 80 percent of motorists have now started wearing helmets.

Under the Surat Spy Eye Project, the Crime Branch has about 7,000 cameras with the help of which the police detect crimes immediately. Cameras play a very important role in traffic regulation and crime detection in Surat city. With the help of cameras, the police also solve the problem of traffic jams. Large traffic circles used to cause problems, so the traffic circles are also being made smaller. Just as Surat is number one in cleanliness, he appealed to the people to follow the rules so that Surat can also become number one in traffic regulation.

In this discussion meeting, issues like traffic signals, signal timing, excessive time spent on traffic signals at night, difficulties in moving to the right side, sale of gutkha and cigarettes around schools, harassment of girls by taporis near girls’ schools, difficulties faced by traders due to vehicles being lifted by traffic cranes in the market area on the Ring Road, difficulties in parking near commercial apartments approved by the corporation, and lack of coordination between the Collectorate, Municipal Corporation and the police system were presented to the Police Commissioner.

Apart from this, various issues like the crowding of traders in the market, lack of Ola-Uber-like arrangements due to the bullying of rickshaw drivers near Udhna railway station, lack of a plan to control the number of students in rickshaws and vans carrying students, problems arising due to pressure at every intersection in the evening, traffic jams in the evening near Surat Varachha Garnala, parking problems in front of Shri Govardhan Nathji’s mansion and the problem of heavy vehicles from 10 pm to 8 am were presented before the Police Commissioner by industrialists, traders, professionals and citizens.