Visakhapatnam police to launch ‘Partners in Policing’ programme to overcome staff shortage and improve response time

Visakhapatnam police tackle staff shortage by engaging GPS-enabled auto drivers and integrating mobile phones for quick response.

The Police Department in Andhra Pradesh is facing acute staff shortage of about 33%, across all ranks, all districts and police stations. And what makes policing even more difficult is that the personnel are continuously engaged in bandobast duty for various politicians, political rallies and meetings and major religious functions.

Keeping this in view, the city police wing is formulating a unique idea to increase the visibility and as well as shorten the response time to any incident.

In Visakhapatnam city, the total police force is around 3,600 and as per the CrPC, this force should be available 24/7, which is proving to be stressful for the personnel.

There is a severe shortage of personnel to take up the ‘beat’ duties and it is managed with great difficulty.

To tide over the issue, Police Commissioner A. Ravi Shankar has come out with the concept of ‘Partners in Policing’.

Explaining the concept he said, “It is true that I have around 3,600 personnel and it is difficult to manage such a vast city, covering 22 police stations. And that is why we are focussing on engaging a few agencies, who would partner us in policing duty.”

To begin with all the 3,600 police personnel have been given new SIM cards that are GPS enabled, which means that there whereabouts can be tracked real-time 24/7, said Mr. Ravi Shankar.