Senior officers should lead patrolling teams in sensitive area : Rajnath

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh while chairing review meeting of Delhi Police here on June 29, 2018, emphasised on the the need of bringing about a perceptional change of the functions and responsibilities of Police personnel among the citizens of the city.

In order to achieve this objective, Rajnath asked police to have a hassle free and citizen-friendly interface with the public, for senior officers to lead patrolling parties especially in sensitive areas of the city, and to employ technology as a force multiplier in achieving policing objectives.

The Union Home Minister was informed that the Delhi Police has commissioned a Crime Victimzation Survey in May through an independent agency, the Quality Council of India (QCI), which will be conducted soon.

Rajnath lauded the Delhi Police for achieving a very swift response time to emergencies which compared favourably with the best in the world. With the setting up of state-of-the-art Control Room by March next year under the National Emergency Support System (NESS) project, the response time is set to further improve. The Union Home Minister appreciated that more than 75% of 944 Distress Callers in Delhi have given positive feedback of the Police to an online survey, according to a PIB release.

Rajnath expressed satisfaction over the fact that the heinous crimes in the capital have dropped from a high of 10,266 cases in 2014 to 6,527 last year. The Union Home Minister, however, voiced concern over the low conviction rate as compared to other metros like Mumbai and Chennai and called for steps to strengthen the Investigation Wing of the force. MHA has sanctioned 4,227 posts (SI/ASI 1,409, HC-1,409 and Ct.-1,409) for the purpose of separation of Crime Investigation and Law & Order functions. Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik said the process to create a Cadre of Investigation Officers is underway.

The Union Home Minister directed urgent implementation of the National Emergency Support System (NESS). He said a scientific assessment and evaluation of the CCTV requirements for the city should be carried out. Delhi Police has undertaken installation of CCTVs at ten Police Stations on a pilot programme basis which will subsequently be implemented in the remaining 184 Police Stations. Also, Delhi Police has plans to install 10,000 CCTVs at public places for Women’s Safety of which nearly 4,000 are in place. Besides, more than 2 lakh CCTVs have been installed by the public under the Nigehban scheme.

Rajnath said there should be zero tolerance for traffic violations and called for more deployment of women in PCR vans. Commissioner Amulya Patnaik said 33% women are being inducted in all ongoing recruitments while their representation in the force is already much higher than the sanctioned strength. Delhi Police is the only force in the country which has enabled registration of e-FIR for cases of Mobile Phone and Vehicle theft.