Traffic police in Addis Ababa are set to be equipped with body and vehicle-mounted cameras to curb ethical misconduct during operations and enhance accountability through technology, it has been disclosed.
Chief Inspector Solomon Adane, Head of the Awareness-Raising Deputy Department under the Addis Ababa Police Traffic Control Main Department, explained that the institution is leveraging technology to address service delivery gaps.
He noted that the body and vehicle cameras will enable authorities to directly monitor interactions between traffic officers and drivers from a central command center and take corrective measures in real-time.
"To specifically tackle such issues, we are utilizing technologies and working on it," Chief Inspector Solomon stated, elaborating on the system. "By using vehicle cameras and traffic police body cameras, we monitor interactions with drivers from the center, allowing us to track and correct operational guidelines, procedures, or incidents on the fly."
Addressing driver grievances regarding traffic penalties allegedly being driven by revenue targets rather than safety, the Chief Inspector emphasized that the traffic control department does not operate like commercial entities with assigned revenue budgets.
Instead, its primary mission is to save precious human lives from death and physical injury. He pointed out that out of the over 1.5 million traffic violations recorded amidst a pool of more than 900,000 active vehicles in the city, over 100,000 cases involved drivers running red lights.
In response to drivers who plea to be "educated rather than fined" when caught breaking the law, the Chief Inspector pointed out that international experiences demonstrate traffic accidents can only be effectively minimized when robust legal enforcement is paired hand-in-hand with awareness campaigns.
Highlighting that tightened control and penalty enforcement are yielding positive results in cutting down accidents, the Chief Inspector revealed that fatal accidents dropped from 411 in the 2017 Ethiopian fiscal year to 382 in 2018. Severe accidents similarly decreased from 1,985 to 1,865, reflecting a total reduction of 120 major incidents.
Conversely, minor accidents rose from 115 to 735, while property damage incidents increased slightly from 34,084 to 34,702. Authorities further stressed that drivers carry a legal obligation to properly know and observe existing laws and road signs.
