CHENNAI: In his reply to the demand for grants for the Police and Fire and Rescue Service departments in the Assembly, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay laid out a preventive policing strategy to tackle murders, crimes against women, drug abuse, cybercrime and corruption, while calling for a modernised and strengthened police force. Police should be able to perform duties without fear or political interference, he said.
Rejecting the argument that individual crimes indicated a collapse of law and order, Vijay said the government would take members’ concerns seriously. “Not every crime originated during the past 100 days,” he said, citing family and property disputes, previous enmity, among other factors.
He said modern policing should identify the circumstances that lead to crime. The government would enable every police station to use crime mapping and preventive policing, while ensuring police maintain contact with communities and understand problems at village, ward and street levels.