THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police department has sought the state government’s permission to rechristen district crime branch units as district investigation units to do away with confusion prevailing among a large section of the public, who still are under the impression that the district crime branch is an extension of the state crime branch.
The state crime branch is the specialised investigation wing of the state police and operates under the control of ADGP Crimes. However, the district crime branch units come under respective district police chiefs and they handle cases that are serious in nature in each police district. Though both crime branch wings function separately, people tend to mix both up and knock at the wrong doors.
“People often come all the way to the state crime branch headquarters in connection with cases that are being investigated by district crime branch units. It takes some pain to make them believe that both function separately and the state crime branch has no role in their cases. As such incidents became frequent, we decided to change the name to give a new identity to the district crime branch units,” said a senior police officer.
The state government, sources said, has in-principle agreed to the proposal.