Police officials up to DCP rank directed to conduct foot patrol in public places across Gurugram | Hindustan Times

All deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) and assistant commissioners of police (ACPs), along with station house officers (SHOs), will now periodically carry out foot patrols with their teams in residential areas, public places, crowded markets, and other parts of Gurugram, officials said on Friday.

The system has been introduced by Gurugram police commissioner Sibash Kabiraj as a confidence-building measure among residents and the trader community (PTI/ Representative)The system has been introduced by Gurugram police commissioner Sibash Kabiraj as a confidence-building measure among residents and the trader community, as well as to increase police visibility among people.

As per the new system, DCPs of all four zones – East, West, South and Manesar – will conduct a foot march with an armed contingent at least once a month. Every month, patrols will be conducted in a new area.

Similarly, at least 13 ACPs posted in the field will conduct foot patrols twice a month, while the station house officers of 39 police stations will do so once a week.

City police commissioner Sibash Kabiraj said that the decision to deploy senior officials for foot patrolling has been taken as a confidence-building measure among the common people.

“It is also aimed at increasing the visibility of the police at public places, which instils fear in the heart of anti-social and criminal elements,” he said.

Kabiraj said that residents, businessmen and traders should get the message that police can be approached at any time.

“In a city like Gurugram, police presence and easy approach carries more importance as a major chunk of the population migratory in nature which is from other states,” he said.

Officials said this foot patrolling is in addition to the night patrolling arrangement, in which one DCP-rank official, three ACPs, and eight SHOs stay on patrol all night with emergency response vehicle teams and riders across entire Gurugram.

Besides foot patrolling, all these officials have been directed to hold meetings with resident welfare associations, traders’ associations, petrol pump owners, contractors, transport and workers' unions, ambulance operators, and other such groups and fraternities to understand their problems and establish direct contact with them.

Officials said that they have already started holding meetings with residents and other stakeholders.

“The motive of these meetings is to know their problems, break the ice and make them feel comfortable to approach police freely, make them aware of laws and also seek information and feedback from them for crime control and improve patrolling across the city,” an official said.

He said residents mainly demand intensified patrolling for their safety, parking-related disputes in affordable societies, and raise concerns about dark streets.

“We are increasing patrolling in several areas on residents’ demand. Besides, we are also writing to concerned departments and civic bodies for fixing street lights to ensure safety. Traffic police are taking up issues of congestion raised during these meetings,” he said, adding that concerned police stations have been asked to crack down on anti-social or criminal activities like drug peddling and parking-related extortion being carried out by local contractors.

Debashish Karmakar is a principal correspondent with the Hindustan Times, Gurugram bureau. He has a vast journalistic experience of almost 14 years of covering crime, court, power, transport, administration, weather and other beats while working across various organisations. He has been covering Gurugram, Faridabad, Nuh, Palwal and other districts of southern Haryana for more than four and a half years. He has produced several breaking and exclusive stories while reporting from the ground where he maintains a strong presence on a daily basis. He writes news articles which are hard-hitting and accurate. With his strong bureaucratic sources, he frequently writes stories to expose the failure of the system forcing authorities to take necessary course-corrective steps. Besides crime, important convictions and court orders, he also writes on human-angle stories, on power issues and challenges faced by the residents on a daily basis in Gurugram and neighbouring areas. In the past, he worked for media houses like The Times of India, where he extensively reported on important government matters and daily proceedings at the Patna High Court. He has also worked in the electronic media and had done ground coverage on the Kedarnath deluge that wrecked Uttarakhand in 2013.Read More