BENGALURU: The city police’s idea of new beat policing, announced by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday, has made residents concerned about the usage of their information which will be provided to constables.
In the new beat policing, each head constable will be assigned charge of a specific area for a year and will be responsible for handling crime or law-and-order problems in that locality.
However, residents express concerns of ‘revealing’ too much information to the police and also that the constables could get hand in glove with criminals who may use the information.
A senior citizen from Basavanagudi, Ramamurthy N Rao, a retired bank manager, when told about the idea of informing the police about every new person in the area, and also about how many people are residing in his house, said: “What is the guarantee that these beat constables will not be hand in glove with other criminals. I have read about such incidents in the past.”
Meanwhile, a senior police officer said: “In the new beat system, we will know exactly who is in charge of the jurisdiction and if any untoward incident happens, he will be pulled up. So, there won’t be any case of getting hand in glove with criminals and even if they do, they will get caught easily.”
While the new beat policing system is aimed at reducing crimes in the city, some are questioning if they will be able to do this with the given shortage of staff in the department.
A police constable on condition of anonymity said: Almost the whole staff from the station has been deployed for this system. It is very difficult for us to do this along with our routine work.
Though a retired police officer agreed it is a good move, he expressed concerns citing previous system where when one goes on a vacation, the beat police had to be informed it. In many cases, this practice led to burglaries where it was later revealed that the constables had informed the thieves.
An officer said: “It is an extremely good move to think of public-friendly stations and police officers but there have been cases in the past where police have been hand in glove. However, we cannot say that everyone will do the same,” he said.
Speaking to police officers on Wednesday, G Parameshwara said the police should keep a watch on every person in the jurisdiction and the beat police should know each and every resident staying in their jurisdiction. He also asked police to build contact with residents and keep a watch on day to day activities of rowdy-sheeters,” he said.
The minister also said it was the responsibility of the Deputy Commisisoner of Police of each jurisdiction to visit police stations at least once a month to hear the grievances of the staff. The assistant commissioners should pay regular visits to stations and examine the effective implementation of beat policing. If any crimes take place in their jurisdiction, DCPs and ACPs would be held responsible, he said.