Lucknow: Police have acknowledged that poor-quality and largely non-functional CCTV surveillance systems severely hamper crime detection and prevention in the city, a gap that several criminal gangs from eastern Uttar Pradesh allegedly exploit to commit crimes and flee without leaving digital trails. Senior police officers said the issue came sharply into focus during the investigation into the recently busted “lift-and-loot” gang, which used a rented SUV without a number plate to rob unsuspecting passengers across multiple police station areas in Lucknow. The gang was arrested on Friday, as reported earlier by The Times of India. Additional DCP (North Zone) Rishabh Runwal said police found that criminals deliberately chose routes and stretches with minimal or ineffective surveillance coverage. “One such major vulnerability is Kisan Path, a key arterial road spanning over 100 km around the city. Police records reveal that only 206 CCTV cameras are installed along the entire stretch. More critically, these cameras have no storage facility, no number plate recognition (NPR) system, and provide only live feeds, rendering them virtually useless for post-crime investigation, vehicle tracking, or suspect identification,” he said. Runwal admitted that the existing CCTV infrastructure on Kisan Path offers little to no assistance in crime prevention or detection, despite the road being frequently used by inter-district and inter-state criminal gangs. Investigators also flagged serious concerns regarding the Safe City and Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) CCTV networks in state capital. A majority of these cameras are reportedly non-functional or face technical issues, significantly undermining their effectiveness in ensuring public safety. “On paper, the city appears to be well covered, but on the ground, many cameras are either defunct or unreliable,” an officer involved in the probe said. Lucknow Police have conveyed these concerns to higher authorities, underlining the urgent need to upgrade surveillance infrastructure, ensure proper maintenance, add storage capacity, and integrate advanced features such as number plate recognition to effectively counter organised crime networks operating in and around the city.
