Spy cameras to monitor prisoners during transit

To provide safe transport to prisoners, the Delhi police will install keyhole-hidden camera in all jail vans.

The jail vans used to transport high-risk criminals will be equipped with mobile digital video recorder facility to monitor activities of the criminals inside the jail van from remote location connected through 3G or WiFi network.

On Saturday, Delhi police has floated tenders for 32 keyhole-hidden cameras to be installed in various jail vans.

A senior official with Delhi armed police, which is responsible for the prisoners’ security and transport, said that they are procuring cameras with in-built microphones to record conversations and the facility to connect the camera via 3G to monitor activities inside the jail van from remote location. The recordings of these cameras will help to analyse the incidents that happen inside the jail van. They want to keep track on undertrials even when they are out of jail.

The tender has been floated for the requirement of cameras in 18 big vans, 10 small vans, and 4 truck jail vans.

“It has been done to ensure safety and security of the undertrials as it was noticed that notorious undertrials often get into fight with rivals inside the van. These cameras will be shock resistant, waterproof, and store recordings of at least seven days. They will be remotely controlled,” said a senior police official.

A jail van has three sections. In the front, where the driver sits, there is an LCD screen. The section in the middle is meant for the undertrials who are seated in an iron chamber. The rear section is meant for policemen to keep watch. Usually, two CCTV cameras are installed in the last section to monitor activities of the undertrials. Earlier, CCTVs installed in jail vans were either damaged or stolen by the undertrials. Therefore, hidden cameras were installed in few jail vans but still there was scope for the notorious prisoners to create ruckus inside the vans. It order to prevent such activities and for better monitoring of activities inside the vehicles, all jail vans that are used to transport high-risk category criminals will be connected by 3G or WiFi facility. Significantly, on August 26 2015, two prisoners were thrashed and strangled by seven others in a clash between two rival gangs in a moving prison van on the way from Rohini court to Tihar jail.