Woman cops to lay golden trap for chain snatchers

The order to deploy women police as decoys comes directly from S George, Commissioner of Police, who was reportedly upset after Sneha (22), a techie, was dragged on the road by an armed gang. Another man who came to rescue the girl was attacked by the auto-borne gang on Sunday evening. Subsequently, he had ordered the deployment in areas prone to chain snatching incidents.

Several women police personnel are already out in plainclothes and the strategy to curb crime is already underway, said police. The decoys will wear gold ornaments and walk on the streets in order to lure the chain snatchers. Multiple police teams will monitor the movement of the undercover cop and nab a chain snatcher red-handed, if an attempt is made. 

“An order has been issued by the commissioner and woman decoys will be deployed at chain-snatching prone areas. Our officials will be watching from a distance and if somebody attempts to target the decoy, we will intervene and arrest the accused,” a senior police official told DTNext.

Sources said due to manpower shortage, woman cops from Armed Reserve could also be deployed. The decoys will be on duty mostly in the early morning, evening and late evening hours, sources said. 

The police have been trying to contain the increasing cases of chain snatching. The former commissioner TK Rajendran had intensified night patrolling across the city to prevent such crimes. However, the mobile vehicle patrolling team could not do much to prevent the cases of chain snatching. In some cases, however, they had managed to intercept chain snatchers when it happened within their view. 

Now, the Commissioner of Police has prepared a patrolling scheme for each police station. According to the new scheme, each police station has been given a number of areas where patrolling has to be carried out every day. The number of patrolling spots per each police station has been decided on the basis of the availability of vehicles and manpower in each police station, sources added.