Officers at work in the Police MTTD Surveillance Center in Accra
The Ghana Police Service has set up a new state-of-the-art Traffic Monitoring and Surveillance Centre at the National Headquarters to monitor traffic situations in the country.
The centre, which is managed by the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), will conduct traffic monitoring and surveillance throughout the country with the help of special CCTV cameras installed at the various intersections, vital installations, and highways across Ghana.
The surveillance system, fitted with special features for capturing and recording traffic incidents, would help the MTTD monitor the level of indiscipline on, and stem the spate of accidents on the road.
The system, which captures major road networks throughout the country would help the MTTD to monitor the level of indiscipline on the roads by clearing the miscreants who had decided not to comply with road regulations.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Francis Aboagye-Nyarko, Director-General MTTD, at a media interaction in Accra, said the system would enable the Service to curtail road traffic infractions, and reduce vehicular accidents in the country.
He explained that the surveillance system is a programme under the new Police Administration to make sure indiscipline and carnage on the roads were reduced.
DCOP Aboagye-Nyarko cautioned motorists to comply with traffic regulations, because the new system would capture all infractions, and they would be arrested and prosecuted.
So far, some 250 vehicle drivers were being prosecuted for violating road traffic regulations within the past two weeks, as a result of the deployment of the surveillance system.
Superintendent of Police, Dr Samuel Sasu Mensah, Director, MTTD, said the monitoring system was being deployed on major roads and intersections in all 18 police regions.
He explained that the cameras utilized for the system give live feed to the MTTD, and any infractions by drivers are relayed to the DVLA for details of the vehicle owners.
Thereafter, the police in the jurisdiction where the infraction took place were immediately notified, and the offender arrested and prosecuted.
Chief Inspector Joseph Zanu, General Supervisor of the System said it had special cameras which had security features that captured infractions as soon as they were made, explaining that there were agents at key points who would take snapshots and videos of cars as evidence.
The cameras are manned by agents who seat behind consoles and looked out for road traffic offences such as unauthorised parking, dangerous driving, soliciting for or dismounting passengers at unauthorised places and the disregard for road markings among others.
An agent, upon seeing these offences being committed, would take a short video and a snapshot of the vehicle involved in the offence. Particulars of the vehicle such as the registration number, colour and make of the vehicle are noted, as well as the time, date and location of the offence, which would forward to the appropriate authority for further checks.
These checks produce the owner, vehicle chassis number, telephone number and address of the owner. Once these are obtained, the offender or owner of the vehicle would be called to the Police Station within the jurisdiction of the offence for prosecution.