Proactive policing, effective grievance redressal key to overcoming suburban challenges: Avadi CoP Shankar

Commissioner K Shankar discusses in detail the special measures, the peculiar challenges of policing in an industrial suburb, and the upcoming plans.
Avadi police commissioner K Shankar in conversation with TNIE at the Avadi Commisionerate office in Chennai on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.
Avadi police commissioner K Shankar in conversation with TNIE at the Avadi Commisionerate office in Chennai on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025.Photo | P Ravikumar, EPS
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CHENNAI: Covering the western suburbs of Chennai, the Avadi police commissionerate recently announced a significant reduction in 11 major heads of crime in 2024 compared to the previous year.

In an interview with Siddharth Prabhakar, Commissioner ADGP K Shankar discusses in detail the special measures, the peculiar challenges of policing in an industrial suburb, and the upcoming plans.

Q: Does Avadi police have special drives for public outreach?

We have a public grievance meeting every Wednesday, where we meet citizens and address their issues. However, citizens can meet us at any time during the week in the commissionerate. In fact, at least 8-10 come every day, and all officers, including me, personally meet them. There is also a robust feedback mechanism, where if the issue is not resolved, we question the inspector. The citizens in Avadi have full access to the police regarding grievance redressal.

Q: What are the specific focus areas for policing in Avadi?

Avadi has a lot of industrial areas like Ambattur, Poonamallee, Red Hills, and Manali. There are also two ports, Ennore and Kattupalli. Though it was earlier largely industrial, now residential areas are also coming up. Avadi’s traditional issues are rowdyism, extortion from industries, and targeted killings. The challenge is to control these elements and take proper action, as it is detrimental to businesses, traders, contractors, and affects prosperity.

Q: What measures have been taken to tackle extortion and murders?

Apart from strict action against rowdyism, we have set up a special wing to gather advanced intelligence on these types of activities, groups, and individuals so that proactive steps can be taken to prevent crime. This is how we have been able to reduce murders by 20%.

In the Red Hills range, which has industries, murders have been reduced by half, from 18 to 8 over one year. 222 have been detained under Goondas as well. These are indices of our proactive work. We have also picked up old cases against these bad elements.

Q: Suburban areas have lower population density with access to highways for an easy getaway. Is this a challenge?

Apprehending criminals is tough everywhere. Today’s criminals are not localised; they move continuously. He might commit a crime here and, in a few hours, cross the state border or go to a faraway district like Ramanathapuram. For this, we have deployed personnel at toll gates. If offences happen, then the CCTV footage at toll gates can be checked to gather information on the vehicles used.

But organised crime can be controlled best by intelligence, which is what we are doing. For instance, if we take proactive action, industrial extortion, targeted murders, etc., can be thwarted.

Q: Has Avadi made progress on the CCTV installation like Chennai?

We have a centralised command and control centre in Ambattur. All major junctions are covered by CCTVs. We are now planning a range-wise measure to cover all smaller areas and lanes with CCTVs. This is because, after committing crimes, criminals avoid the main junctions and prefer bylanes. So, it is more important that these areas are covered by CCTVs.

Q: Avadi is surrounded by state and national highways. How are traffic issues handled?

Suburbs have more vehicles and are driven at higher speeds due to the presence of highways. We also have ports in our jurisdiction, and there have been public complaints that people are unable to take their vehicles out due to container traffic obstructing them, especially during school hours. People trying to manoeuvre past these containers also lead to accidents. These are some of the peculiar challenges.

To address the container traffic issue, we have tried to earmark dedicated lanes on some roads that are wider for these vehicles. There has been a limited improvement, but local people have had some relief. An issue we face is that the containers stand on roads for days if many ships have arrived at the ports. This creates inconvenience.

Q: What measures have been taken to enforce helmets and curb racing?

Helmet enforcement in suburbs is slightly more challenging compared to Chennai, as people here are not as inclined to wear them. City people have different habits. In places like Avadi, we don’t have an issue. But near Red Hills, when it is strictly enforced, people start resisting. However, we are registering cases without causing too much inconvenience.

We had a few cases of bike and auto racing on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Tambaram-Puzhal Inner Ring Road (IRR). It usually happens on weekend nights. We have put in place night-time patrols to curb this.

Q: What measures have been taken to tackle the drug menace?

Ans: We have seized around 1090 kg of ganja, and our seizures of gutkha were the highest, as we seized around 16.5 tonnes from a main organiser. Ganja comes from other states, and we have made sizable arrests and seizures of big consignments, as well as from peddlers.

On synthetic drugs, we are trying to identify the source, but it takes time. The general feedback is that consumption of such drugs is more in southern suburbs and Chennai, and is not that prevalent here.

Q: How is Avadi tackling the issue of cybercrime?

With the rising number of cases, we have added two more inspectors to the cybercrime unit, which had only one earlier. There are more than 300 cases. The cybercrime wing has been given a fortnightly target to recover the (scammed) money and return it to the complainants. Though it might be only a small portion, it is still something.

Returning the money to the complainant is the biggest awareness campaign, as people come to know about it. We also post it on social media. Important cases are reviewed, and accused individuals are arrested to break the chain, but such arrests take time.

Our data shows that cases of online job scams account for 80% of all such cybercrimes, but digital arrest cases are slowly increasing. In some cases, investigations show that those involved in such cybercrimes, renting out their accounts, are willingly complicit. We try to arrest key individuals in such cases to break the chain.

Q: Avadi has a lot of land grab complaints. Any special measures to address that?

It is an issue peculiar to suburban areas, as there are many vacant plots. There was lethargy earlier, but now we have a very effective cell after a big revamp. We get a lot of cases of land grab, at least one per day. From last year, inspectors have been instructed to arrest the accused if fabrication of documents and usurpation of land is found. In some cases, the accused are also detained under Goondas.

The number of cases, progress of investigation, and filing of chargesheets are reviewed regularly; otherwise, it goes into limbo. In many cases, we have been able to reverse the land grab and return the plot to the original complainant.

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