CHENNAI: In a move to make the process of lodging police complaints easier, patrol vehicles in the city will be upgraded to serve as mobile police stations to receive complaints from people. Distressed residents no longer need to walk up to the nearby police stations.
Launching the new initiative of police visiting the neighbourhoods, city police commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal said for the 124 police stations in the city, there are four patrol vehicles at each station.
“These patrol vehicles will stop at designated places from 11 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 5 pm, to take complaints from the people.” The objective is to expand the police presence on streets, thereby increasing the confidence and sense of security among people. Hence, there would be 372 police stations in the city instead of 124, Aggarwal added.
The top official said irrespective of the nature of complaint, all complainants would be equally acknowledged and those complaints which cannot be resolved on spot will be communicated to the police station. There, a Community Service Register (CSR) receipt would be generated for further action. “The same would be communicated to the complainant’s mobile via a text message,” said the official. The locations where the patrol vehicles are parked would be communicated to the people.
In some areas, they will be parked near the police booths itself in order to revive the concept of police booths as well, he said. As a mark of launch of the initiative, the commissioner flagged off patrol vehicles and handed over pamphlets to personnel on the safety of women, children, and senior citizens, which will be distributed to public. “On the lines of video call grievance meeting and foot patrolling, the exercise is to build confidence among people and increasing their accessibility to police,” Aggarwal said.