Beat policing to turn vigorous from April

BENGALURU: Just as a city has one police commissioner and a district one superintendent of police, each area or locality in the city will now have one constable exclusively assigned to it.

Each constable will be assigned charge of a specific area for a year and will be responsible for handling crime or law-and-order problems in that locality . State police chief RK Dutta has issued a circular for im plementing this system from April 1.

While the new beat policing system is aimed at reducing crimes in the city, some are questioning if it will be feasible given the staff shortage the police department faces.

Police inspectors have been directed to deploy 90% of the staff in their stations for this new system.This means police writers, police staff handling court cases and even those engaged in intelligence services will have to be deployed for beat policing in addition to their routine work.

“We want to create people-friendly police system. Beat system is the foundation for that and by empowering lower-rank staffs, we can effectively achieve friendly policing,“ Dutta said in the recent circular.

Former city police commissioner L Revannasiddaiah was appreciative of the initiative but pointed to the staff shortage in the police department.

“The constables, apart from doing other routine work, have to keep a watch on their area, which is not possible,“ he said. “After the compulsory weekly-off system came into existence, in each police station there are seven to eight con stables who will be on their weekly off and some will be undergoing training. At this stage, deploying more number of the staff to the beat system may not be effective.First, vacancies should be filled and then this system should be implemented.“

At present, around 60% of police staff are deployed on beat duty and the remaining are assigned various other work. In Sadashiva Nagar police station, out of a total 70 staff members, 42 are deployed as beat police. Under the new system, 63 of them will have to deployed as beat constables. Beat constable Ramalingappa (name changed) is also worried about having to handle crime and law-and-order problems in his assigned area.

“Whenever there is an emergency , we have to rush to our area. It will be easy for senior officers to visit the spot at any time as they will be having official vehicles and other facilities, but it is not the same case with us,“ he said. “I work in Wilson Garden police station and stay in Marathahalli. It will be difficult for me to reach a crime spot in my area at odd hours.“