AI surveillance now keeps watch on Bengaluru traffic police

The Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) has rolled out a new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered attendance system to ensure its personnel report to duty on time and at the right locations. The department has integrated a geo-tagged e-attendance feature into its Aastram mobile application, replacing the older biometric machines.

Under the new system, police officers must now mark their attendance using their smart phones. At the start of each shift, they are required to take a selfie with geotag and timestamp, which the AI then cross-verifies with their Aadhaar-linked photograph. This ensures both the identity of the officer and their physical presence at the designated junction.

A key element of the system is geo-fencing — attendance will only be accepted if the officer is within a 50-square-meter radius of the assigned junction. If they attempt to check in from outside this zone, the system automatically rejects their attendance.

Explaining the move, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Karthik Reddy said, “We have over 1,000 junctions and two shifts — 7 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 10 pm. Earlier, there was no mechanism to confirm whether an officer was actually present at their assigned location. With this new feature, we can now monitor when and where each officer is stationed.”

The system enforces strict punctuality. Officers must check in between 7:00 am and 7:15 am for the morning shift. Those who arrive between 7:15 and 7:30 am are marked as late, while anyone logging in after 7:30 am is automatically recorded as absent.

According to officials, the system has already yielded encouraging results. With daily deployment across 800 to 1,000 junctions, absenteeism among traffic police personnel has significantly dropped since the introduction of e-attendance. Previously, absenteeism was a persistent issue, but now only one to three officers fail to report each day.

Additionally, the AI-based monitoring provides real-time alerts to senior officers about patterns of late arrivals or early departures, helping enhance accountability, transparency, and discipline across the force.

Officials believe the move represents a major step forward in modernizing Bengaluru’s traffic management system — ensuring that the guardians of road discipline follow discipline themselves.