Kolkata police will issue an advisory for jewellery stores in the city to secure their establishments from possible heists before the festive season rush sets in.
The move comes after two outlets of a jewellery chain were robbed in Purulia and Nadia districts on the same day earlier this week.
“They will be asked to install high-resolution CCTV cameras inside and outside the shops, place the CCTV output in a separate location and not in the same room as the store so that the men monitoring the output can alert police,” said joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata police, Shankha Shubhra Chakrabarty.
The advisory would include keeping a backup of CCTV footage in “cloud-based storage” or at any other hidden place so that even if the DVR (digital video recorder) is robbed, the footage can be obtained from the cloud.
Robberies at gold loan institutions, jewellery shops and ATM kiosks are not new in Kolkata and the city’s outskirts.
The police said the vulnerability of such institutions increases manifold as the rush of buyers goes up before festivals and it becomes difficult to maintain vigil inside the stores.
“Apart from the optimum use of CCTV cameras, it is important to hire proper security agencies that provide guards who have licensed arms. Deploying professional security guards will help the stores maintain an entry-exit protocol inside the store, ensure proper frisking of customers entering the store and prevent the entry of anyone wearing helmets,” said an officer in Lalbazar.
An officer in Lalbazar said a meeting has been arranged between the police and the gold and diamond merchants of the city to convey the advisory that has been prepared by the detective department of Kolkata police.
The meeting is scheduled for next week, the officer said.
