Street crimes like robbery, snatchings (money-bags and ornaments) and the green shoots of apparent terror haven in the Commissionerate jurisdiction will be the thorns in the new Police Commissioner’s crown.
For the new Commissioner Yogesh Bahadur Khuania, the challenge is to stem the tide, whereby, criminal elements easily escape post the crime from the jurisdiction despite not being border to any State. And, which would only then bring a better crime detection rate that currently is not on par with its cousins nationally.
Though the crime against women (rapes, eve-teasing etc.) is still a headache for the Police Commissionerate, statistics, however, also reveals the limitations of the Commissionerate Police.
Significantly, the bee in the bonnet of the police establishment is the rising cases of rape victims - who are minors. Data released only recently reveals that last year a high of 70 per cent of rape victims are minors and in nearly 80 per cent of such rape cases, the victims are found to be in relationship with the accused. And, here the limitations get exposed as police cannot prevent it strictly under law and order problem.
However, ‘zero tolerance’ to eve-teasing could be achievable if Police Commissionerate launch special drive against such nuisance mongers post the collection of inputs from its PCR sources. Significantly, eve-teasing nuisance at times becomes a ‘crimogenic’ factor for violent crimes like murder and rape -which then become a clear law and order problem. Besides, cyber crime is another annoyance for the new Commisioner as ISIS threat and fake fund-raising firms loom large over the country via social networking sites. However, it’s the street crimes acquiring the monstrous proportion posing a threat to law and order problem in Commissinerate jurisdiction that needs an immediate attention, observed a former DGP. Though Khurania has the limited personnel at his disposal, yet a proper resource re-deployment could bring results on the ground, he counselled.
It needs mentioning that when more than 1,160 personnel under Special Security Battalion provides round-the-clock security to vital installations and VVIPs, another over 1,300 are under Armed Battalion leaving only another half of the total for security cover of a whopping over 14 lakh population under Commissionerate jurisdiction.
Though, recently the Government is toying with the idea of utilising personnel from Armed Battalion to join civil police duty. Only enhanced police visibility and monitoring of criminal elements could rein in street crimes, opined the former top cop.
What is the immediate doable for the CommissionerIJ The foremost is indentifying vulnerable areas via crime-mapping and analysis, so as to redeploy resources for results on law and order front. Detection and action against active criminals under each police station limits. Since in many instances it has been observed that many criminals after being released from jails regroup to usher in terror reign, former DGP feels the urgency to put the released criminals under surveillance. Experts also lay stress on the need to revamp Beat Police System, whereby beat officers be tasked with to identify top criminals of their beats as practised in Mumbai and elsewhere.