Inspectors to be at police station from 5 to 6 pm

City Commissioner of Police T K Rajendran has orally instructed the officials after he received complaints regarding non-availability of inspectors at stations to receive complaints and there was an increase in the number of complainants approaching the grievances cell at the Commissionerate. Officials said the timing would be reviewed after seeing the response from complainants. 

“At present, the inspectors need to receive complaints directly from the complainants at the station between 5 and 6 pm. We need to see whether this is convenient to the complainants or not, and will change it or increase the duration if necessary,” a senior police official told DTNext. 

A majority of complainants who approach the grievances cell complain about lack of response to their petitions at the police station level. Many have alleged that they do not get to meet the police inspector at the station to register their complaints. 

The City police is planning to work in close co-ordination with residents’ associations to prevent crimes in neighbourhoods by those who strike once they find an opportunity. Officials said meetings with residents associations had been scheduled for coming Sunday at every police station when their co-operation would be sought to prevent crime. 

“Police will also explore the option of having more CCTV cameras on every street for crime prevention and also as an aid to crime detection. We will request the residents associations to install CCTV cameras in their localities for increased safety,” the official added. 

In addition to this, police are exploring the idea of showing slides at cinema theatres to create awareness about attention diversion crimes, financial frauds and other common offences. Officials said short duration slides would be provided to the theatres for display prior to the screening of the movies. as a drive to create awareness.

In order to improve the safety of elderly people living in the city alone (Chennai has the largest number of elders living alone in the country), the city police is planning to revive a policing model  once effectively implemented by the Neelankarai police. Neelankarai police had taken the count of elderly persons living alone under their jurisdiction and personally met each of them. Police then saved the station number on the mobile phones of the people under the speed dialling facility and instructed them to press a single digit to get the police at their doorsteps in case of an emergency.