250 new recruits to Bengaluru Traffic Police are giving jitters to motorists with a propensity to violate rules. That too without lifting a finger. Meanwhile, 4,500 other traffic cops are flailing their hands to flag down violators, even chasing them at times to ensure a semblance of order on chaotic roads.
The 250 mannequins dressed as traffic policemen are a huge success, admit city’s senior traffic police officers. So much so that a team of officials from Paris police department met Bengaluru top cop, Bhaskar Rao, last week & enquired about the results of installing mannequins.
Rao told news agency that “They have taken the details & may introduce the measure in Paris too".
Donning traffic police’s khaki & white uniforms, complete with reflector jackets, boots & sunglasses, the life-size mannequins are stationed at different intersections every day. They’ve been instrumental in ensuring motorists stick to the law, officers said.
The mannequins, incidentally, are Rao’s brainchild. A scarecrow he noticed in a paddy field on the outskirts of Bengaluru gave him the idea of getting dummies to stand in for traffic police in the city.
Rao said that “If scarecrows could be effectively used in driving away birds & other animals destroying crops, why not use a mannequin to control traffic?”
With the city’s vehicle population of 80 lakh slated to touch 1 crore by 2022, traffic police face the problem of manpower. “We need more personnel to handle the increasing traffic & we decided to place mannequins at busy junctions. Since they look like real traffic cops, motorists fall in line in their presence,” the commissioner said.
The city has nearly 600 traffic junctions. While nearly 380 have traffic signals, the rest are manned by personnel. Bengaluru is home to 44 traffic police stations & around 4,500 traffic police personnel.
Every day, around five mannequins are given to each station. Each mannequin costs between Rs 4,000 & Rs 6,000.
Officers are shrewdly alternating the deployment of mannequins & personnel at the junctions to ensure motorists do not get complacent. “One day, if there’s a mannequin at a junction, the next day there will be a real policeman in its place. The third day, no one will be present at the junction,” Rao explained.
He said he has plans to implant the mannequins with cameras so that they can click pictures of violators & enable remote monitoring of the traffic situation by the control room.
Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) BR Ravikanthe Gowda said the mannequins are getting a positive response from the public.
BR Ravikanthe Gowda said, “A couple of software engineers met us & said the mannequins should be used in handling traffic signals. By doing so, police can pay attention to other aspects like clearing traffic congestion".
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