Shri. A. Arun IPS, Inspector General of Police, is the Additional Commissioner of Chennai Traffic Police. He had served as Commissioner of police, Trichy before moving to Chennai in November 2017. His earlier stints include Joint Commissioner, Traffic (North), Greater Chennai Police, and Joint Commissioner, Law & Order (South), Greater Chennai Police.

 In an exclusive interview, Shri A.Arun IPS shares with Marie Banu the traffic regulations and systems he initiated in Chennai.

What inspired you to become a police officer?

I had a thought of joining either the Indian Defence Service or Indian Police Service since the time I joined College. I studied Mechanical Engineering and was a class topper. I was also active in extra curricular activities, especially Karate and Martial arts.

I realised that one gets to be isolated while in Defence service, whereas you become part of the society in Police service. Thus, I decided to become a police officer. After completing Engineering, I appeared for the Civil Service Examination. Generally, people choose Indian Administrative Service as their first option, but I chose Indian Police Service.

Can you tell us about the traffic regulations and systems you initiated in Chennai?

Earlier, the Traffic Police officers used to stop the violators, issue a challan, and collect the fine by way of cash. This was called ‘spot fine system’. Many thought that it was a bribe amount. There has been few cases where extra money was collected or receipt not issued by the traffic police officers. This gave room for a lot of allegations.

To do away with this, we introduced the ‘cashless e-challan system’ in May 2018. This system allows people to swipe their cards at Point of Sale machines already available with the traffic police. Those served with e-challans can make payments online through the web portal of State Bank of India, as well as that of Paytm. Fine can also be paid through the Paytm mobile app using a relevant QR code, or by way of cash at post offices, relevant courts and state-run e-sewa centres.

This system was introduced in Hyderabad much earlier, and only 40 to 50 percent of cashless payment has been reported. But, in Chennai, we have a record of over 97 percent of cashless payment being made. The public has welcomed our initiative, hence this success.

Where do you derive your inspiration for such initiatives? Do you plan to introduce road safety in the school curriculum?

Inspiration for such initiatives come from the public. We read a lot; travel to other countries, and get an idea of how traffic systems can be improvised.

While I was traveling in Australia, I did not find any traffic violators. I would like to narrate one incident when I was on a 300 kilometer road trip along with three other Police officers and an Australian driver.

One of my friends was trying to throw away an empty coke bottle on the sidewalk when the driver told him not to do so. He argued, “There is no one around in the entire stretch of the road, hence it isn’t wrong.” The driver said: “That is the same reason why I am telling you not to throw it as there is no one to collect it and put it in the garbage bin.” I was pleasantly surprised and asked the driver what made him think in this way. He said: “I learnt these values while at school and it was an important part of my curriculum.”

This made me realise that we have a responsibility to teach our children such values while they are at a tender age. We are now working on a school curriculum for road safety and are planning to make it mandatory.

About the Traffic Exhibition hall in Commissioner’s Office?

We have created a Traffic Exhibition hall in the seventh floor of The Commissioner’s Office in Chennai. My idea is to bring school children here and make them get familiarised with the Police Department. They should feel comfortable and develop an interest in our work.

The Traffic Exhibition hall exhibits boards with messages explaining the traffic signals, sign boards, road safety traffic equipment and their use. While the children will go through the exhibits, the robot called ‘Rodeo’ will speak to them explaining the necessity of road safety.

Is our entire city brought under 24×7 surveillance with the Third Eye campaign?

The Third Eye Campaign is the brainchild of Dr. A. K. Viswanathan IPS, Commissioner of Police, Chennai. We have taken a lot of initiatives from the Traffic department which has been appreciated. Our target is to bring all the Chennai roads (332 small and big roads) under CCTV surveillance and have at least one CCTV for every 50 meters distance. We have achieved 80 percent of our plan and hope to complete this task in a month or two.

We have a monitoring system wherein every 50 cameras are brought under one unit. We have a list of people who have set up the CCTVs area wise and our team goes periodically to review the functioning of the cameras.

In case of sponsors supporting a stretch of 50 cameras, we set up a booth and monitor it.

Live monitoring of all the CCTVs is not required and with over 2 lakh CCTVs in the city, this is not possible too. Whenever there is a problem, we go to that particular area and retrieve the CCTV footage for review.

The entire campaign is supported by the public and private sponsors. Now, we are also getting funds from Corporation, TASMAC, MP Fund, and MLA fund.

People still fear to rescue an accident victim for the legal processes involved for the witness. Your advice on this?

There is a “Good Samaritan Law” that offers legal protection to people who provide first-aid to accidental victims. The law aims to encourage people to assist the accidental victims without fear of harassment by police. It also protects the “Good Samaritan” from liability, if unintended consequences result from their assistance.

Our traffic police personnel are well informed about this Law and they do

not insist on witness for accident

cases anymore.

Our city is facing a lot of crimes against children and women. What are your thoughts?

It is a proven fact that Chennai is a safe place for women and children.

Unlike other cities, our city is a much safer place. Domestic violence is present, but the overall crimes have reduced considerably in our city.

Any interesting case in your career which you would like to share?

There has been many interesting cases that I have dealt in my career so far.

During 2004, there was a gang of criminal tribes from Stuartpuram, a hamlet in Nellore district, that used to break into several homes in Chennai while the inmates were present.

Then, I was the Deputy Commissioner of Police at Annanagar and handled this case. I visited Stuartpuram along with my team and camped for over a week. This led to capturing seven of the eight dacoits. Very interestingly, that was the last of the dacoity incident that happened in our State as there has been no such cases reported for the last 15 years.

When I was Deputy Commissioner of Police at St Thomas Mount, my team detected the criminals who were involved in the bureau pulling offences for over a decade. We were able to recover more than 500 sovereigns of gold and hand it over to the victims.