New Indian police officers are lifeless but alert

Police in India's high-tech hub Bangalore are trying a new way to reduce traffic offences by using cardboard traffic police officers to scare drivers into believing the long arm of the law is watching them.



The man in charge of trying to deal with Bangalore's traffic, Additional Commissioner of Police, Dr MA Saleem, said: "Policemen cannot be omnipresent at every road and every junction because we don't have that much strength - the tendency among road users is that whenever they see there is no traffic policemen at any stretch of the road, they try to violate traffic rules." And Dr Saleem is happy with the initial results of the new experiment.

"Impact has been quite good. A lot of people when they see from a little distance, they immediately turn back. In fact one auto driver was found talking to that person." The plus side of the new additions - these gentlemen in khaki work long hours without a break and will never take a bribe to look the other way when it comes to traffic offences. The downside is - they are not very proactive and are unlikely to step in if there is a mess with the traffic.


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So to mix things up, there will sometimes be real policemen posted at the places where the cardboard ones are being used, just to ensure road users don't come to expect a traffic cop who never actually flags them down. Three of these khaki-clad policemen are out on the roads of the city - and another ten will soon be added. The next step is to equip them with cameras.