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Delhi
is a vibrant city with increasing urbanization, some of an unplanned
nature, a population crossing 165 lakhs and vehicular numbers
touching 56 lakhs. Incidence
of crime in the city by itself is not a reliable barometer to
measure the functioning of the police. There are a variety of
crimogenic factors which impact crime. These include socio-economic
factors such as unemployment, disparities in income and living
conditions, lack of basic civic amenities particularly in
jhuggi-jhopries and unauthorized colonies, adverse sex ratio,
continual in-migration outpacing the development of infrastructure
and availability of working opportunities, a consumer culture with
umpteen TV channels continually selling a life style, particularly
through advertisements, which many want but cannot legitimately
obtain etc. This aside the Delhi Police has to deal with challenges
resultant from the city being the national capital such as a large
number of VIP movements and protest programs which lead to a
substantial commitment in terms of manpower.
The above factors notwithstanding, the efforts of Delhi
Police ensured that the over all incidence of crime showed a
declining trend though heinous crimes remained almost constant.
Where crime did increase, the Delhi police rose to the occasion and
upped the detection rate of heinous crimes from 87.9%
to 89.4%. Several dreaded criminals were neutralized or
arrested by the districts, Crime Branch and Special Cell. The Delhi
Police maintained its excellent
track record in effective handling of kidnapping for ransom
cases which declined by 25% and there was a 100% success
in these cases. Violent
property crimes, snatching, motor vehicle thefts, hurt cases etc.
also declined during the year due to concerted efforts by the
districts to prevent the same.
The quality of investigation by the force resulted not only
in an impressive detection rate but also in working out of a large
number of sensational, blind and complicated cases.
The conviction rate increased substantially from 55%
to 65%.
Delhi
police has been paying special attention to the safety of women and
this has resulted in decline in rape cases for the second
consecutive year. At the same time detection in rape cases has gone
up and there is a decline in involvement of strangers. Emphasis has been laid to check crimes against women and to
improve the sensitivity in response of the police. There is a growing presence of women functionaries at all
levels of the districts with one woman district DCP, two women Addl.
DCsP etc. There has
been an increased presence of women police at women colleges, market
places etc. Safety of senior citizens continues to be an area of
focus. We have been
reaching out to senior citizens, registered with us, both on telephone as well as personal
visits. We are also pro-actively giving advice regarding steps to be
taken to prevent crimes at home, safety of vehicles, money/jewelry
etc. The servant
verification drive continues. We
will continue to lay emphasis on community policing while seeking
further cooperation and support of the Residents Welfare
Associations, Market Welfare Associations etc.
Terrorism
has been a major area of concern both nationwide and in Delhi.
The Special Cell has kept up its reputation
as the
premier anti- terrorist unit in the country by neutralizing
and arresting several terrorists including Jaish-e- Mohammad (J-e-M)
division commander Asif @
Kari @ Saifullah in Jammu, Lashker-e-Toiba (L-e-T) commander Khalid-ur-Rehman
in Doda and J-e-M militants Abu Baquar @
Usman and Mohd. Tariq @ Sajjad in Bandipura (J&K) in
joint operations with the J & K Police/Army. On the occasion of
Independence Day 2007 the officers of the Special Cell were awarded
a record 21 Police Medals for Gallantry with the total of 28 in the
year. This aside, the district/armed police have also chipped in by
taking a series of measures to keep up the vigil against
any terrorist strike. An
initiative started to sensitize and use street vendors, parking lot
attendants, chowkidars and security guards, TSR/Taxi, bus drivers
and conductors, porters in the railway stations/ISBTs/Airport as the
“Eyes and Ears” of the police will be given a further thrust.
During
the year, emphasis was laid on introspection and improvement in the
functioning of the police stations.
Free registration of crime was emphasized as was the need to
promptly and pro-actively deal with complainants and their
grievances. Within the system, focus was put on quality
investigation; the need for continual monitoring on a
day-to-day basis by the SHO and supervision by the ACP; due
diligence before effecting arrest and ensuring arrests are made when
necessary and strictly on the basis of evidence impartially
collected; building up of criminal intelligence; revamping of the
beat patrolling system; improving the living conditions of the force
in the barracks etc. Efforts would continue in the new year on
presenting a more humane face of the force, dealing with
complainants with empathy and alacrity, improving the quality of
investigation, keeping criminals and crime in check with particular
sensitivity to crimes against women, senior citizens etc.
The Crime Branch was considerably strengthened during the
later half of the
year with focus on quality, transparent and methodical
investigation. This policy paid dividends with the Crime Branch
successfully working out some very difficult cases including the
Hailey Road and Hauz Quazi murders, Uma Khurana string operation,
serial stalker Vivek Kanwat etc. The EOW was also considerably
strengthened in the second half of the year, and it worked out
several complicated cases of cheating, forgery, cyber crime, land
scam etc. The seizures by the Narcotics Unit have been considerably
higher this year.
Traffic is an area which impacts all citizens. Almost
everyone has an opinion on it. The sheer volume of the traffic has
led to choking of many roads during the peak hours and the situation
is only going to worsen till a viable alternative public transport
system emerges. The city has 32 modes of motorized transportation
and 16 modes of non-motorised transportation which cause a great mis-match
of speed and systems – Lamboghinis and other varieties of the most
modern cars vie for space with rickshaws, cycles, two-wheelers etc.
Illegal parking, encroachments etc. reduce the net availability of
useable road space. Nevertheless,
the main area of concern is the inadequate level of the awareness of
traffic rules and courtesies besides respect for the rights of
others.
Efforts are afoot to bring about a paradigm change in the
functioning of the traffic police and ensure the highest level of
proficiency and probity in all ranks. There is a new buzz in the
traffic policing with emphasis on chase and challan. The
introduction of police patrol 24X7, the multi-tasking of 50 PCR vans
to perform traffic duties as well, the emphasis on the Traffic
Inspectors (TIs) and Zonal Officers (ZOs) being mobile has helped to
give a new edge to traffic management. With the introduction of 225
motorcycles in the next few days, traffic patrolling will get a
boost. Besides, actively challaning offenders, the traffic police
will continue to strive to improve the flow of traffic by continuing
its new initiatives related to bus stand discipline, clearance of
encroachments on carriageways and pavements of major and arterial
roads, illegal parking, red-light jumping, pedestrian discipline
etc. It is our endeavour to have a deterrent impact on rash and
dangerous driving, particularly jumping red-lights at high speeds,
by taking action under section 279 IPC which entails registration of
a case, arrest, seizure of the vehicle and its release only on court
orders etc. We will also focus on inculcating respect for the
traffic laws in school children, both by training and by taking
action against them for illegally driving vehicles without licenses.
As a result of various measures taken by the Traffic Police this
year, there has been a decease both in fatal and simple
accidents by 3.5% and 8.3% respectively. Blue line buses accidents
declined from 103 in the 3rd quarter to 83 in the 4th
quarter due to concerted measures taken against blue line buses.
The PCR continued to be the backbone of the police distress
response system. The PCR vans attended 6,69,016 calls.
Reaching beyond the call of policing, they provided immediate
succour to 45,649 persons who were rushed to various hospitals in
the vans. The PCR system will get a major boost in 2008 with the
recruitment and training of the newly sanctioned staff. The PCR will
be able to operate 500 bases on a 24X7 basis instead of 338 round
the clock bases at present with 162 bases operating only on a single
shift.
The Security Unit’s role, given the fragile security
scenario, can never be under-estimated. The Unit provided security
to a large number of VVIPs/PPs. During the year they also covered
45 VVIP Conferences and visits of Heads of States and
Government besides making arrangements for 3,030 visiting protected
persons.
The Special Branch continued to render quick and effective
passport verification and character verification of government
servants. It cleared 2,06,225 passport verifications and 25,300
services verifications. The fourth District Passport Centre (DPC) was opened in Nehru
Place and the DPCs were awarded the ISO 9001 :2000 Certification.
The 21 companies
of the Delhi Armed Police (DAP) in the CP’s Reserve/Teen Murti
Reserve/Route Reserve, functioning on a 24 hours on and off basis,
did a great job in providing timely and reliable back up during
sensitive and crisis situations.
The 3rd Bn. DAP functioning under difficult
circumstances produced 2,80,566 under-trials in various courts in
Delhi and 7464 outside Delhi. The recruitment process under the DAP
has already achieved the ISO-9001:2000 Certification for the
recruitment of constables. The recruitment board is now achieving
greater laurels with the entrustment of the recruitment of
Sub-Inspectors and we will seek to get ISO Certification for
recruitment in all ranks. This year the Recruitment Branch has
undertaken recruitment at a scale
unprecedented in previous years with 2,766 personnel already
having been recruited to various ranks and the process under-way for
the recruitment of 4,941 SIs (Exe), Constables (Exe), Drivers,
HC(Ministerial) etc.
The Training Unit also competently responded to the challenge
of training and has trained 10,321 officers/men in 2007. It caters
both to initial as well in-service training of police officers and
other ranks and has arranged a variety of training programs to train
and sensitize police officers. New initiatives include a behavioural
reorientation course for police personnel for the Commonwealth Games
-2010 and a month long training program organized with the IP
University Law Faculty in which eminent judges, criminal lawyers,
prosecutors etc. are guest speakers.
I would like to
place on record the valuable and excellent work done by all the
support units including the administrative branches of the Police
Headquarters (PHQ) and other Districts/Units, Communications Unit,
Provisioning & Logistics Unit, Land & Building Cell, Legal
Cell, Special Task Force, Special Riot Cell etc. whose valuable
contribution in keeping this force operationally and
administratively shipshape has been immense. The Licensing Branch
had its ISO 9001:2000 Certificate revalidated. The unit continued to
restrict the issue of fresh arms licenses which further declined by
16.3% in 2007. The ‘walk in’ renewal system in which a person
can come to the Licensing Branch and walk off within 45 minutes with
his arms license renewed is a feather in the cap of the Unit. The
Land & Building Unit also had a successful year. 4 Police
Stations, 2 office complexes were completed and nine projects for
construction of residential quarters as well as Police Stations were
taken up and six more are expected to take off this month.
It is common knowledge that the expansion of the police
infrastructure has not kept pace with the expansion of the city and
its population. We have been endeavouring to find solutions by
internal mobilization backed by high technology force multipliers.
We are seeking to have a high-tech traffic management centre with
camera coverage of most of the major and arterial roads besides
red-light speed cameras at sensitive locations etc. This project,
which we expect to get going before the Commonwealth Games, would
help in checking crime as well. We are going in for a ten-digit
automated fingerprinting system which will speedily check the
antecedents of arrested persons. We are also floating a global
expression of interest to seek the latest technology for
surveillance cameras in markets and other sensitive areas. There are
other technological initiatives being taken by us which will give an
added cutting edge to the force.
A word of thanks and appreciation to those citizens who
displayed exemplary valour in catching criminals. We are looking
forward to greater cooperation from all segments of the society in
our fight against crime. We appeal to all the citizens of Delhi to
become the “Eyes and Ears” of the Delhi Police.
It is the endeavour of the Delhi Police to continually raise
the bar of acceptable performance. We are aware of the expectations
of the public and would keep up our efforts not only to continue as
the country’s premier police force but also to match the standards
of the best in the world. |
