Reception desk staff at police stations to wear body cams

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Police Commissionerate has asked all personnel of police station reception desks to wear body cameras to check the behaviour of both the policemen and the visitors. The Police Commissionerate has taken this step following the alleged sexual harassment of a woman and torture of an Army officer by policemen at Bharatpur police station here. Besides, a woman had allegedly misbehaved with the police in Khandagiri police station here recently. Some police stations in Bhubaneswar implemented the directive on Sunday, a police officer said. To ensure accountability and transparency, Commissioner of Police S Dev Datta Singh has directed all personnel at police station reception desks to wear body cameras. This will monitor the behaviour of police with visitors and will bring accountability, the Police Commissionerate said on X on Sunday.

The police personnel have been sensitised to be polite, sympathetic and to act according to law in their dealings, it said. “Body cameras will deliver real-time alerts to the control room, improving our response.

The audio visual recordings will be preserved for at least one month. We are in the process of upgrading the existing body cameras to make them state of the art,” the post on X added.

Many a time, it was alleged that proper behaviour was not shown to the people visiting the police station. At the same time, it was also alleged that complainants misbehave with the police personnel in the police stations, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bhubaneswar, Pinak Mishra, said. To check it, body cameras have been issued to different police stations which will record the conversations, he said.