TRAFFIC had improved over the past week on some city areas notorious for large numbers of traffic violations after 20 mobile surveillance monitors were deployed on roads.

Thursday’s Shenzhen Economic Daily quoted traffic police as saying that a total of 10,783 violations had been caught on camera since surveillance was implemented March 25.

The mobile surveillance is a 360-degree rotating digital camera installed on top of a vehicle, said an unnamed traffic police officer. Footage from the camera was displayed on a screen and could be processed in real time by police officers in the vehicle, the Daily said.

“The timely processing of footage of violations from the mobile surveillance has greatly improved the efficiency of our work,” said the police officer.

He said the mobile surveillance would be able to cover some “dead corners” that a fixed camera could not cover.

Illegal parking and illegal taxis were rampant near the Luohu and Huanggang checkpoints before the introduction of mobile surveillance, said Mai Yongjun, a senior traffic police officer in charge of checkpoint areas.

“We had difficulty in obtaining concrete of traffic violations as cameras installed in the checkpoint areas were fixed. Some regular drivers are so familiar with the cameras that they park their cars illegally in areas that are beyond the (range of) cameras,” Mai said.

Drivers now are more careful because violations could be caught any time anywhere. A driver surnamed Liu said: “I now strictly follow traffic rules as I have no idea about the location of mobile digital cameras that will catch me.” (Wei Jie)