THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Putting an end to the nine-year old practice initiated by the first Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government, the state government has re-appointed sub-inspectors as Station House Officers. However, the department has retained 63 Inspectors as SHOs in strategically important stations. Another 63 women sub-inspectors will be appointed as SHOs.
There are 484 police stations in the state and barring 63, the rest will have sub-inspectors as SHOs. The surplus 203 Inspector posts that have been identified across districts have been allotted to various wings.
Owing to the ongoing Operation Toofan, which is a flagship project of the UDF government against narcotics, district narcotic cells got 40 Inspector posts allotted to them, which is the highest among all department arms.
Currently there are 59 police stations without sanctioned sub-inspectors and to address that the department has decided to go for redeployment from the State Special Branch, Vigilance, Police Academy, Crime Branch and the Economic Offence Wing.
The SI-led SHO system will, however, come into full effect after a period of at least two months to enable infrastructure modifications and training.
Majority of the stations have multiple SIs and to facilitate easy identification of the SHO, appropriate identification badges would be introduced. Additional and assistant sub-inspectors will be designated as heads of Law and Order, Crime and Prosecution wings in the station.
Apart from partially doing away with the Inspector-centric police functioning, the department is also returning to Inspectors being supervising officers. As in the past, two or three police stations will come under a circle and that will be monitored by an Inspector/Circle Inspector. The DySPs will continue supervising functioning of a sub-division having up to nine stations.
The police in the past had sub-inspectors as central authority in police stations, while the Circle Inspectors had a supervisory role. A paradigm shift in this happened in 2017 when Inspectors replaced Sub-Inspectors as SHOs in 196 stations. This practice was extended to all the stations in 2018.
After the UDF came to power, a committee was formed to check whether the new system should be done away with or continued. The committee led by the ADGP (Headquarters) reported that returning to the old fashioned-way of functioning will enhance supervisory structure in the force and also help in professional grooming of the sub-inspectors. It was also pointed out that the SIs had a better scope for effective intervention on urgent matters owing to their young age. Following this report, the government decided to go for a revamp.
QUick Look
Police stations in Kerala 484
Those with Inspectors as SHOs 63
Stations with women SHOs 63
Dist narcotic cells get 40 Inspector posts
Surplus 203 Inspector posts identified across districts allotted to various wings. District narcotic cells got 40 Inspector posts