Police have started noting down the numbers and details of all beacon-fitted vehicles spotted at major crossings in the city, sources in the traffic department said.

All the 25 traffic guards in Calcutta have been instructed to deploy civic volunteers at major intersections and manually note down the registration number, the make of the car, the details on the board on the windscreen if available and the colour of beacon fitted on it. The data is being collected every day at the respective traffic guards.

The move, which started on Tuesday, came a week after all the police stations were asked to compile a list of government officials in their respective jurisdictions eligible to use red or blue beacon-fitted vehicles.

“Once both the lists are ready, it will be easier to tally the approximate number of vehicles with beacons spotted on the road with the number of people eligible to use beacon-fitted cars in different traffic guard areas. If the number of cars spotted (with beacons) is found to be more than the number of eligible officials, it would be clear that some of the cars are making unauthorised use of the beacons and flashers,” said a senior officer of the traffic department.

There have been several instances reported in the past where beacons have allegedly been misused by unauthorised persons who have purportedly taken advantage of a beacon to jump signals or park in no parking zones.

Of late, some of the misuse has been specially to get immunity against the road restrictions during the lockdown period, the police said.

Several police officers said that the recent arrest of Debanjan Deb, who allegedly impersonated an IAS officer and used a beacon-fitted car, has been an eye-opener into how many in the city were misusing beacons, which are meant only for posts authorised by the court and the state transport department.

After the arrest of Deb, who was posing as a joint commissioner of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, the chairman of the board of administrators of the CMC and state transport minister Firhad Hakim had said that the transport department would soon revise the list of posts eligible for beacon-fitted vehicles and flashers.

A senior police officer said: “Our officers face a lot of harassment while trying to check the veracity of the occupant of a beacon-fitted car. To avoid that, we would like to start the crackdown once the accurate list in consultation with the transport department is ready.”