With crimes in check, focusing on other aspects of policing: CoP

CHENNAI: DGP Shankar Jiwal has completed one year as Greater Chennai Police Commissioner and in an interview with Venkadesan S, the top cop says grievous crimes like murders have come down in the past year and that the Commissionerate is building upon the existing system for better policing on seven verticals — women and children safety, controlling drug menace, rowdyism, traffic management, police welfare, cybercrime and juvenile delinquency

Major challenges faced and how city police tackled them…

The monsoon floods last year required efforts to prevent untoward incidents, and we set up an exclusive control room and formed 14 rescue teams with 323 SDRF-trained personnel. The teams rescued 667 people and the 319 distress calls received were attended to without any delay. Once in two hours, people were notified of the flooded areas and traffic diversions through the media. The other challenge was to keep COVID infections among the personnel under control. An elaborate system was brought in place to treat the infected and keep them in quarantine to prevent infection spread. The second wave of the pandemic claimed 29 officials’ lives in the city, but no deaths were reported during the third wave. Considering the periodical rise in cases, we distributed 14,000 pulse oximeters to the families of the subordinates. .

Milestones achieved in the one year...

The number of murders from May 2021 till January 2022 (before Avadi and Tambaram Commissionerats were established) in the Greater Chennai Police jurisdiction was 97, which is less compared to the same period previous year (109). The attempt-to-murder cases, too, have come down from 278 to 235. We also detained 150 serious offenders under Goondas Act, which keeps them away from society at least for eight to nine months. So, the activities of rowdies are at a low now. The recently sanctioned serious crime squad will soon get officers as soon as the model code of conduct for them is approved. They would deal with the notorious elements.

Pocso cases and women harassments are on the rise…

The number of crimes against women being reported has increased because of the continuous awareness campaigns by 35 Pink Patrol vehicles. Standard Operating Procedure for Pocso cases was developed, and the cops dealing with child sexual abuse complaints are following it. Apart from initiatives like installation of 5,250 CCTV cameras in public places, cyber lab with stateof-the art facilities, GIS mapping of crime spots at a cost of Rs 153.40 crore, and eight additional projects at a cost of 15.53 crore have been proposed under safe city projects using Nirbhaya funds.

Measures to keep juvenile delinquency and route rivalry under control…

About 73 per cent of offenders are from slum areas, and another 40 per cent who indulge in crimes such as assault, attempt-to-murder and murders are also from slum areas. To prevent kids from slums from getting misled into illegal activities, we have increased the number of boys’ and girls’ clubs from 82 to 120. Each club has eight computers, a library and a sports coach. Though it is entirely funded by government, corporates do come forward to offer their service in terms of faculty and equipment. Recently, HCL Foundation donated a bus which we use to take children to different places.

When it comes to school and college students indulging in public nuisance over route rivalry or harassing bus crew and fellow passengers, the strategy so far has been to warn them after inviting their parents. Though the counselling part would continue, students who repeatedly indulge in such activities and those who carry arms to institutions would be arrested.

We have also planned to carry out a week-long programme for school and college students at the beginning of the academy year to make them aware of how such activities would affect their career prospects and warn them to stay away from those who misled them.

Drug menace is on the rise despite best efforts...

The city police have registered 531 cases and arrested 993 smugglers and peddlers as part of the drive against drugs. We have also made arrests in other states to break the supply chain.

The major source of ganja is Andhra Pradesh and Tripura, while synthetic drugs like LSD and MDMA are smuggled from Bengaluru. Also, we have detected 16 cases of abuse of scheduled drugs and seized about 10,000 tablets. Pharmacy owners have been instructed not to sell such drugs without prescription.

However, chasing the smugglers and peddlers alone will not make the city drug-free. To help understand the prevalence of drug abuse in society, the State government has planned detailed a survey by the Social Welfare and Health departments to find out who abuses which drug and to what extent, based on which de-addiction programmes would be formulated.

Cybercrimes and countermeasures...

There is an exponential growth in cybercrimes in the last decade and the city alone reported 13,077 incidents in 2021. Social media has become the new medium of miscreants. All 11 police districts in the city have cybercrime units, the newly formed cybercrime police stations in all four zones will soon start registering cases. A cyber alert app to alert when similar cybercrimes are reported and a cyber-safe portal for the state are in the pipeline.

Steps to ease traffic congestion in the city and control violations...

The number of traffic signals on Anna Salai has been reduced from eight to four after diversions, which resulted in fewer traffic snarls on the stretch. Various drives are being carried out to book motorists for violations and the ANPR cameras to book traffic violations at the important junctions.

Police welfare measures...

CLAPP, the application for the personnel to apply for leave, has been received well. Their seniors would process the request and they will be notified through the app itself if the leave application is rejected. Women personnel are given work-life balance training, while NIMHANS, Bengaluru, is conducting called ‘Magizhchi’, a special programme for personnel with alcohol addiction.

Instructions to subordinates to prevent custodial deaths…

The Supreme Court directions on handling of accused and suspects are often reiterated to the station head officers. Custodial deaths happen due to other factors, too, such as the sudden health complications, but death due to beating is not acceptable. The government has tied up with the Anna Institute of Management to train the personnel to bring about an attitudinal change.

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