Nagpur: The rising crime situation has bother the new city Commissioner of police Dr. K Venkatesham big time as he is now set to revive the traditional ‘beat system’ so that citizens can know the name and strength of police personnel monitoring their locality and keep a close eye on any significant development.
Implementing the concept of ‘proactive’ policing, Dr. K Venkatesham aims to ensure that every locality or a cluster of localities would be included in a ‘beat’ which shall be under a senior personnel with a team from respective police stations. The beat personnel, along with one or a couple of assistants, shall be responsible for keeping vigil on illegal activities and antisocial elements in each locality. The beat in-charges shall be directly reporting to senior inspector of police stations, updating him about any significant developments and so on.
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Tuesday 28 Jan. 2025
The move comes in the backdrop of gruesome murder of goon Ashish Raut by vegetable vendors earlier this week in Sakkardara over harassment for extortion. The top cop wants to curb such incidents. “We want to ensure that the beat personnel are visible at designated places so as to infuse confidence among citizens and a feeling of security,” said the CP.
Dr. K Venkatesham also said the beat in-charges should know their localities like the back of their palm. He also stated that beat in-charges would be at service of citizens even at odd hours. “We are planning to display the contact numbers of beat personnel at prominent places in each locality. The motto is to encourage one-to-one interaction between police and citizens at micro-level,” he said and added, “The personnel concerned should develop rapport with the masses and also perform tasks of keeping vigil and gathering information,” said the top cop.
“The beat personnel should know the key persons, opinion makers, leaders and activists of each localities. The personnel should be able to manage trivial issues, use personal relations to tackle any unrest and be the first responder in crisis,” the CP added.
Though the system existed in the past too, Dr. K Venkatesham aims to improvise it to suit present day requirements with added responsibilities including close surveillance on antinational activities and outfits spreading hatred or fomenting communal disharmony.
