The first digital safe zone by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), established just three months back, has fallen flat due to lack of operations.
The “digital safe zone,” which was built to monitor an area covering a 400 meter radius in Uttara, was established to ensure better security for locals. However, most the residents in the area remain unaware about the facilities or the activities of the zone.
“Where is the camera? What is a safe zone? Is this for us or only for the educated people?” said Saiful Islam, a rickshaw puller, when asked about his view of the safe zone.
On November 5 last year, DMP established the digital safe zone at Uttara’s house building intersection in the capital.
The safe zone was built using four high-tech CCTV cameras, which can be used to monitor an area of 400 meters from all four sides. Each of the cameras cost around Tk1 lakh.
“I have never heard anything about a safe zone. I have seen the cameras at the house building intersection, but have no idea about the purpose,” says Sejuti Sarker, a housewife and a resident of the Uttara’s Sector 9 area.
“Every day many people violate traffic rules and other laws, but very few of them get punished. We are not getting any benefits from this safe zone,” says Naimur Rahman, another resident of the area.
He further said he does not believe that the safe zone has been able to reduce crimes in the areas as people have no knowledge about its activities.
In January, DMP established five more safe zones, each consisting four cameras, in Rajlaxmi, Jasimuddin, Abdullahpur, Airport and Sonargaon Janapath intersections. The cameras are monitored at control rooms in Uttara West & East police stations and the Police headquarter.
However, in a recent visit to the control room, this correspondent noticed that most of the cameras were not functioning properly or recording any video feed.
Ali Mahmood, sub-inspector (investigation) of Uttara West, admitted that the police is yet to arrest anyone using these cameras.
When asked why no one was arrested when two cocktail bomb were exploded, injuring at least two people, at the area on November 11 last year, SI Mahmood said: “The cameras could not capture anything due to the darkness of the night.”
On the presence of streetlights, he noted: “The streetlights were down before the incident occurred.”
The initiative to establish a safe zone in the capital was first taken by Assistant Police Commissioner of Uttara (petrol) Mashruf Hossain and Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Nisharul Arif.
DMP sources said, they have plans to set around 100 cameras in various points of the capital.