VIJAYAWADA: In 2024, the police department underwent a complete overhaul by adopting technology, said NTR District Commissioner of Police (CP) SV Rajashekhar Babu on Monday.
Speaking to mediapersons at the Operation Command Control Centre while presenting crime statistics, Rajasekhar Babu explained that the NTR district police launched first of its kind initiatives such as technology-driven policing and traffic management using drones and artificial intelligence. He noted that these initiatives have not only played a vital role in improving day-to-day policing, but also inspired many other districts and neighbouring States to adopt the same.
The CP stressed that efforts of city police in reaching out to the public through various outreach programmes resulted in a lesser crime rate. He revealed that the overall crime rate in the district had decreased by 11% in 2024 with 5,780 cases being reported as against 6,477 cases in 2023.
He pointed out that thefts, murders, bodily offences, and crimes against women came down in the district this year compared to the previous year. Acknowledging the rise in cyber crimes, he emphasised that effective measures are being taken to tackle online fraud.
Elaborating on the department’s new initiatives, he explained, “Unlike in the past, we are giving more importance to technology and AI platforms in policing as it would reduce burden and ensure accuracy. It will also help analyse the patterns of crime. We have also launched a pilot project, ASTraM, to control traffic in the city. With the data obtained, we will study the traffic patterns and predictions which can be used for our next project - Urban tactical traffic management.”