Policing needs a makeover: Gupta

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Seeking to downplay the rising incidents of crime against women in the city, Delhi police commissioner, B.K. Gupta said on Thursday that the concept of beat patrolling needs to be reinvented to prevent such incidents in a metropolitan city like Delhi.

The city has seen an increase of almost 3 per cent in rape, molestation, robbery, snatching, kidnapping and auto theft cases with 48,161 cases being registered in 2010 as against 47,069 in 2009. The number of murders has dipped from 527 in 2009 to 519 in 2010, with most being committed by first-timers and for trivial reasons.
Mr Gupta said that the force will undergo major changes this year to make it more visible on streets to deter criminals. “Statistics don’t matter. They can be easily manipulated. This year, our main focus is to revamp beat patrolling to crackdown on organised street crime syndicates”, Mr Gupta said at the annual press conference held at the Officers Mess in Civil Lines on Thursday.
“To prevent street crime, MCOCA will be used extensively against the organised syndicates. Only last week, we booked three criminals, who were held in outer and northeast districts, under MCOCA,” Mr Gupta said.
“The cases of robberies have gone up from 2.91 in 2009 to 3.25 in 2010, rape from 2.65 to 2.80, women molestation from 3.11 to 3.35 and snatching from 7.59 to 9.13, respectively, per lakh population. Auto thefts have also increased from 203.44 to 214.83,” a press communiqué issued by the police mentioned.
Mr Gupta said, “Of the 155 police stations, 26 in outer and southwest districts like Rohini, Mangolpuri and Dwarka account for about 50 per cent of the crime in city. “We are identifying the vulnerable areas where mobile patrolling will be increased with focus on biker gangs,” he said.
“The PCR vans have been told to act as mobile police post and not remain stationed at one place. The visibility of cops deters a person from committing crime,” he said. The police has surrendered 800 posts of constables to get 500 posts of sub inspectors to make policing officer-oriented in the city.