A change in ‘strategy’ from enforcement to traffic regulation, coupled with perhaps a politically tumultuous year, has seen traffic violation cases come down significantly in the city.
The number of cases filed under various sections pertaining to traffic violations has come down to 11.74 lakh till the end of November, as per data from the Bengaluru City Traffic Police. This is a drop of nearly 25% from 2017, and the deficit is not expected to reduce significantly in December. This bucks a decade-old trend in traffic enforcement, one that has risen drastically from 26 lakh in 2009 to over 1 crore last year.
P. Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), says that the drop is a result of a change in strategy, one that places priority over regulation of traffic rather than on enforcement. “Our primary aim is to regulate traffic and not to collect fines from people. Instead of allotting 10 policemen per station for enforcement during peak hours, we have shifted them to traffic regulation duty. This translates to over 440 additional traffic police personnel regulating traffic rather than hunting for violators,” he said.
He believed that a balance between enforcement and traffic regulation would induce discipline far more effectively than just a focus on enforcement. “However, there is no compromise on drink and drive cases. We are now focussing on 50-70 spots daily and will increase it with time,” Mr. Harishekaran added.
Till November, 45,295 cases of drunken driving have been registered, a stark fall from nearly 74,000 cases registered last year and even lower than the 59,028 cases registered in 2016. Traffic personnel attributed this drop on elections, which saw them take a nearly two-month break from routine traffic enforcement.
“This year has been hectic for the traffic police. On many days, we’ve been deputed for law and order duty or security detail. After the elections, oath-taking ceremonies saw many traffic policemen deputed there, while back-to-back festivals and even days such as the death of (former Minister) Ambareesh saw us stay away from special drives,” said a senior traffic police official.
Compounding this issue is the absence of alcometers which were out of service for nearly a month due to calibration issues, said an official.
