25 high-tech patrol vehicles inducted into M'luru city police commissionerate

Twenty five high-tech Maruti Ertiga patrol vehicles that can reach crime spots quickly were inducted into Mangaluru City Police Commissionerate on Thursday.

Speaking after flagging off the vehicles, Home Minister G Parameshwara said the concept behind buying the new patrol vehicles and equipping them with modern gadgets is to improve the beat system. The government has allotted 322 such patrol vehicles for Bengaluru. Such vehicles will be inducted into all police commissionerates in the state, he said.

With this new vehicle, the police will now be able to reach crime scenes or trouble-hit areas at the earliest. This will help the police to patrol more intensely.

Every vehicle will have a tablet. When the control room receives a call, relevant details are shared with a mobile data terminal team, which then checks for a patrol vehicle that is closest to the scene of crime and the information will be passed on to the vehicle. In fact, an automatic route will also be generated to help the patrolling vehicle to reach the crime spot.

“The police personnel should be alert while on beat. The constables should have knowledge on the houses and complexes on the areas assigned to him. Alertness would help in preventing the crimes. When writers and artistes face life threats, the police should keep an eye on their houses. Had we known that there was a threat to the life of scholar and researcher Dr M M Kalburgi, we could have installed CC camera and security could have been strengthened. We did not have any clues on threat to his life,” he said.
 
Each vehicle will have two to three personnel and they will work in three shifts. It will not have any jurisdictional restriction while attending the crime scene, he explained and added that women police personnel will also be deployed in the patrolling vehicles in the future.

Stressing on the need to enhance security, the home minister said, “We need to take preventive measures to curb crimes in the city, as people's safety is the priority.”

On Shortage of staff in the Police Department, he said the process has been initiated to recruit 21,000 police constables. Already 16,000 constables have been recruited. “The Home Department has sought approval from the Finance Department to recruit police personnel for the next three years. In addition, the selection process of 1,000 sub-inspectors are on.”

To a query on inflammatory speech of MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Parameshwara said, “We will examine whether the speech was provocative and then initiate action against him.”