New chief of Karnataka police bats for transparency, victim-centric approach

Bengaluru: Transparency in the functioning of the police department, a victim-centric approach and community participation formed the crux of the focus areas of MA Saleem, who took charge on Wednesday as the new and 43rd Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) and Head of the Police Force, Karnataka.

The Karnataka government placed Saleem under concurrent charge until further orders, even as he continues to be the DGP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Units and Economic Offences, Bengaluru.

Saleem replaced Alok Mohan, a 1987-batch IPS officer, whose term as the head of the police force (HoPF) ended on Wednesday.

In an interaction with the press, Saleem outlined 12 main focus areas during his tenure as the state police chief. “Normally, the police focus on a criminal-centric approach, and the victims are forgotten. Hence, bringing in a victim-centric approach is a key focus and will be a paradigm shift from the criminal-centric approach of policing,” Saleem said.

Saleem's other focus areas are: Maintenance of law and order to ensure peace and harmony, monitoring social media to prevent misinformation and disinformation, prevention of anti-national and anti-social activities and complete elimination of rowdyism, adoption of latest technology, focus on the prevention of cybercrimes, prevention of social evils like drugs and gambling, protection of vulnerable sections of the society, efficient traffic management and welfare of policemen to provide better working atmosphere.

Responding to a question by DH about a spike in cybercrimes in rural areas, Saleem said that under his tenure, the department will strive to equip the designated Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) crime stations step by step, while he agreed that rural police stations currently weren't as equipped as those in cities. “Under the Centre for Cybercrime Investigation Training and Research (CCITR), all police station staff are being trained. Among the strengths of 1 lakh, 40,000 policemen have been trained under Level 1 and Level 2 courses,” Saleem said.

“Advanced courses need to be brought in. Since CCITR is under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, we are at an advantage as we get financial support and the availability of experts. This helps us in training and capacity building,” he added.

Outgoing chief Mohan was the longest-serving IPS officer in Karnataka, serving for 38 and a half years.

Speaking on the occasion, Mohan said: “We always believe in teamwork, and I can only say the achievements of the state police have the contributions of each one of you. I can state with full conviction that the Karnataka state police is the best police force. Each of you individually is an outstanding officer.

“Together, you are a force to reckon with. Even the German police recognised that they would learn from us when their delegation was here. I can say with a lot of satisfaction that I was the leader of a team of outstanding teammates."