Bijay Kumar Sharma, who took over as the State police chief from DGP Dr RP Sharma on Thursday, said he would try to make the police more people-friendly, responsible and humane and also implement the 5T-mantra of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the force.
Sharma said stress would be laid on infrastructure development and transparency in the police stations, which are the centre-point of the policing system.
The grievances of the people, who come to the police stations, should be immediately addressed and the functioning of police stations should be expedited by use of technology.
“The functioning of police stations should improve so that anyone who reaches police station for any grievance redressal is immediately helped by the cops because it will make the police more transparent and responsive to the people,” he said.
Urging on improving the relationship between people and the police, Sharma said, “If police fail to work efficiently and fail in crime detection, distress among public is evident. Therefore, the police have to increase their efficiency.”
He said efforts would be made to increase the conviction rate and importance would be laid to use modern technology in crime investigations. Besides, safety of women and girls in the State would be a top most priority.
Also, importance would be laid on intelligence gathering. Another top priority would be to ensure that police officials, be they a Constable or a Home Guard, has access to modern technologies as it would help in better crime fighting, Sharma said.
Elaborating further, he said the beat system would be reintroduced and Constables would move on foot in the streets instead by motorcycles or four-wheelers.
But they should be provided with laptops so that they have every information at their finger tips about the area, be it the liquor shops, the criminals or the elements who frequently create nuisance in their jurisdiction.
Speaking on the Leftwing insurgency, he said in the past the police have achieved significant success in anti-Maoist operations. In future, the drives would be intensified so that the menace is kept to the minimum.
Sharma said all efforts would be made to provide qualitative services to the people and improve the image of the police.
Sharma, who assumed charge as the in-charge DGP, is also the incumbent DG of Fire Service, Home Guards and Civil Defence.