COIMBATORE: A series of burglaries at the police quarters in the Police Recruit School (PRS) campus has become a nightmare for the police personnel. Following the consecutive thefts, police strengthened security arrangements across the campus. However, the families of the personnel are worried and said the arrangements are being strengthened only after witnessing many such incidents.
A resident on the campus said, "We already asked the department to deploy adequate surveillance at all gates and have repeatedly stressed the need to control the entry of outsiders. But, no action has been taken. So far, there have been three thefts and a few attempts. Recently, when a man tried to steal a police officer's vehicle from the campus, the woman police attached to the district police unit, caught the suspect and handed him over to the city police. Later, it was said that he was mentally unstable.”
The Police recruitment school (PRS) campus, located between Balasundaram Road, PN Palayam and Avinashi Road, is the residence of district police officers and the armed reserve police. Over 200 families are residing on the campus.
Sources said, "Over the past few years, except for 2 gates (Avinashi road and Balasundaram road), the other 3 gates including two wicket-entries have not been deployed with staff and so no one knows is entering through the gates. Many come and go claiming to go to the houses of the police personnel, but none know the real reason.”
A police official, seeking anonymity, said, the suspects who had stolen valuables from a policeman’s house on Wednesday would have used the wicket entry connecting in the PN Palayam area (usually called Vani Vilas gate) which is an emergency route and also the one which has no guards.
Meanwhile, following the incident, senior police officers conducted a meeting with the staff and officers at the PRS campus on Wednesday and beefed up the security arrangements at all the entry points.
When contacted, a senior police officer said, "We have to ensure the safety of police personnel as they are serving the public. If this continues, people will lose hope in the department. We have formed two special teams to trace the suspects.”
About the security provided, the officer added, “Moving and static sentry teams consisting of policemen from both city and district units have been formed for 24 hours surveillance. The problematic wicket entry will be manned and would be soon converted as the main entry with complete surveillance. Besides, the Avinashi road entry is opened only for officers. We are also planning to increase the number of CCTV cameras inside the premises.”