S-E cops expect to top property recovery list

Value of recoveries has overshot by 50 per cent over last years figure

The South-East Division has solved more than 700 cases of crime, arrested 600 suspects and recovered stolen goods including jewellery and vehicles worth more than Rs 18.11 crore with seven weeks to go for the year to end.  Last year, they had detected more than 1,000 cases and recovered property worth Rs 12.47 crore.

B N S Reddy, DCP (South East) told Deccan Herald that involving residents in crime prevention initiatives had helped his Division in its performance.

Vital information

“We have fixed beats for subordinates. We have constituted one beat with 50 citizens from all walks of life. The beat members met regularly at police station-levels and exchanged vital information about criminal and rowdy elements.

Frequent interactions boosted trust among beat members and finally helped in zeroing in on suspicious elements leading to recovery of stolen goods.”

Another citizen-centric initiative was public grievance meetings.  The police learnt what citizens expected and demanded from the public. The feedback helped the police change their functioning style and the police became more public-friendly. The police distributed leaflets and pamphlets to create awareness about recurring crimes. The police also took the help of non-government organisations in these initiatives.

The end result was a sudden decrease in the number of chain snatching cases, a major crime in the City, Reddy added.

The police took into custody suspects from public parks which also led to recovery. “This became possible as we kept a vigil in parks, especially on early mornings and late evenings,” he added.

Precautionary measure

“As people working in IT/BT sectors reside in our division, our staff regularly meet them and exchange information. They also suggest a few precautionary measures,” explains Reddy.

Steps such as advice to collect details of domestic help before appointing them and holding of conferences of bank managers on attention divert cases played a major role in reducing the crime rate.

The police put officials in mufti at leading banks during peak hours and directed cyber cafe owners to have digital data usage file of the users which can register, capture and store photo ID and Photo of the users.

Director General & Inspector General of Police Ajai Kumar Singh and Commissioner of Police Shankar Bidari directed their subordinates to have property parades to hand over the recovered goods to their owners, a step likely to boost image of the police among public.