Indian Police Use Cardboard Cops

A lethal combination of poor law enforcement, untrained drivers and bad roads result in one of the world's most dangerous countries to drive in.

Bangalore police commissioner M.A Saleem told AFP: "We can't be omnipresent. Drivers in Indian cities violate traffic rules when there are no cops around - they jump traffic lights and go the wrong way on one-way streets."

"These cut-out cops are very effective and they can be on the job seven days a week."

Life-size cut-outs are frequently used in places like the UK and USA as a crime prevention measure. Saleem said he believed it was the first time such an idea had been employed in India.

By March 2013 three cardboard policemen have been deployed.

Saleem reports that one cardboard policeman was stolen prompting his department to remove the traffic "scarecrows" at night to reduce chances of theft.

Bangalore driver said: "It's good. From a distance it looks like a real cop,"

Another said that he had been fooled by the cut-outs: "Two or three times we thought it was a real policeman standing there and we slowed down."

Saleem reports that the city plans to install ten more cardboard police on Bangalore's roads.