The move, according to police, comes as part of an overall police strategy aimed at replacing current methods with more advanced systems that could serve larger number of people and catch up with the pace of development in the city. “The new traffic system depends on a central database. More than 400 traffic department employees, working in the vehicle and driver licensing sections, will be directed to working in field assignments, that is in traffic planning and accident investigation, etc,” said Colonel Ahmed Hamdan bin Dalmouk, Head of the General Directorate of Electronic Services at Dubai Police.
It will be the first time in the Arab countries that a ‘pocket PC’ is being used in Dubai for the provision of traffic services, said Col. Bin Dalmouk. A traffic cop can get any information about a certain vehicle by just entering its registration number.
He can also issue a traffic fine and send a mobile phone message, a fax or an email message to the car owner, depending on the data available in the traffic file of the vehicle owner. The amount of the fine can also be relayed to him or her as well as all details relevant to the traffic violation. “This (pocket PC) will mean that the manual traffic fine register will no more be needed for the issue of traffic fine notices,” said the official.
The device also has a camera that takes photos of the vehicle in question as a proof against the offender. These photos can be shown to the traffic offender if he or she raises any objections. Traffic accidents or any unacceptable driving behaviour by reckless drivers can also be photographed.
“When a policeman finds a car that blocks traffic in a parking lot, for example, he would retrieve all information about the offending car. If the vehicle was found to have committed the same offence in the past, he would inform the owner immediately about the offence on his or her mobile phone or by fax as a warning, but the policeman can also tow the car and impound it with immediate effect,”said the official.
The new system is expected to be fully operational within months. It can deal with 183 different traffic violations. Cops can access data on traffic statistics on a daily basis to know the number of fatalities in accidents as well as injury cases, number of registered cars and licences and traffic fines issued by the Dubai Traffic Police Department.
The system can provide three main traffic services; inquiry on vehicles, issue of traffic fines and provision of traffic statistical information.
Col. Bin Dalmouk said the system would first be implemented in Dubai, and at a later stage, would be generalised to be used in other emirates in the UAE as part of the unified traffic system. The official said Dubai Police in the late 1990s started a privatisation process of some of its services, including roadworthiness tests, driver training and others.
He said future plans would require close cooperation with many agencies including companies, civic bodies and traffic departments in other emirates, as well as windups with the e-government.
For this reason, an integrated traffic computer system is being developed at the UAE level, in the same way as a unified criminal database and a unified immigration and residency system were set up. Since September 2002, the new traffic system started being developed at the instructions of police chief Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim. The system will handle a huge workload at traffic police departments. Col. Bin Dalmouk said some 3,000 transactions were processed daily at Dubai Traffic Police Department.
Quelle: Khaleej Times, 07.08.2004
