Beat patrol system has started yielding good results, says Coimbatore city police commissioner

Coimbatore: City police commissioner A Saravana Sundar talked to TOI about the measures he is planning to implement to reduce crime rate and the results yielded by the efforts so far. Excerpts

How did you bring the crime rate down?

I launched visible policing with the 24x7 beat patrol system in the city. We have 52 beat patrol teams, comprising 156 cops. The beat patrol system has started yielding good results. We also have launched lurking beats in the city to monitor the movement of suspicious people at night hours. All the investigation wing police officers are part of this beat system. In addition, crime-prone areas are geotagged, and criss-cross patrolling is in place.

Why is crime rate high in north division?

Singanallur, Peelamedu and Saravanampatti police stations, which cover vast areas, fall in the north division. Newly developed areas are growing rapidly in these police jurisdictions. Some house break-ins were reported in these areas. However, we have brough down the number of crimes in the north division in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year.

Would you be taking additional measures to bring down crime rates further, especially in the north division?

We are planning to increase CCTV coverage in the residential and commercial areas in the north division. CCTVs play a vital role in crime detection. Criminals would hesitate to execute their plans in the areas with high CCTV surveillance. Beat patrolling will also be beefed up in the newly developed areas in the north division to control crime rates further.