Certainty of being caught and certainty of being punished make people afraid of committing crime rather than death penalties: Mahendar Reddy, DGP

Hyderabad, August 17, 2019: Certainty of being caught and certainty of being punished make people afraid of committing crime rather than death penalties. Death penalties may not stop people committing crime, but certainly the certainty of being caught and punished may prevent them from committing the crime. The very same people who are more law abiding in the west behave otherwise here, because, there they know that they can’t escape. But, there are more chances of going scotfree and unidentified. But, this will soon be the thing of past. We are working more towards this aspect. The ability to detect and punish the offenders is the basic foundation of law enforcement in this state said Mahendar Reddy, DGP, Govt of Telangana.

Many big cases solved in 24 to 48 hours. The next big thing after solving a case and finding offenders is getting them convicted. We were successful in getting culprits punished in many sensational cases including recent 9month old Baby rape case in Warangal he shared.

The top cop accompanied by his colleague Swati Lakra, Inspector General of Police (Women's Safety) Telangana. I/C SHE Teams & Bharosa had a Face to Face interaction with 100 plus FICCI Ladies(FLO) members here in the city on Saturday morning.

Sona Chatwani, Chairperson of FLO while welcoming gathering quoting Albert Einstein said, “The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who watch it and don't do anything about it”. Progress is possible where there is a peace and harmony she stated.

This Face to Face program is a collaborative platform with government functionaries. The Face to Face initiative started ten years ago and is organized simultaneously today across 16 FLO Chapters across India. We will also submit a paper to the police and government as the outcome of this program, Sona informed.

Sona Chatwani, Chairperson of FLO moderated the interaction.

The soft spoken top cop Mahendar Reddy gave his next five year blueprint. We would like to be the first in the country in standardizing safety, security practices and enhancing it along with the changing times. And it is also our endeavour to improve quality of investigations. That is our first goal

The second point on the agenda is improving emergency response management. Currently in the city it is well within five minutes, 10 minutes in semi urban area, 15 minutes in rural areas. The state’s average has been 12 minutes, he stated.

Third priority is the women safety as they form half of our population.

As lifestyles are changing and people are more on to digital mode of life nature of crimes are shifting to digital platforms. So police is reorienting themselves towards the same. We have the best Cyber Crime Lab; the best Talent dealing with cyber crimes and we have best of the best state of the art equipment he said

The fourth priority area is traffic management.

The fifth pillar of our blueprint for future policing is establishing uniform service delivery across the state. We are working towards rendering same quality of service delivery standards across the state.

Telangana Police think that technology could be force multiplier. Man power alone cant’t help. Technology is important for ability to perform he said.

Moreover as the very nature of crimes is also changing from traditional crimes to cyber crimes. So the focus is more on technology. Also for effective law enforcement and to punish offenders we need evidence based enforcement. That is why our focus is more on embracing latest technology, he added. We have installed five lakh CCTVs in the city. Our goal is to reach one million. London city has one million and we want to reach that number and offer evidence based policing to the people in the city as well as the state.

We have 67000 police force in the Telangana. We have added 194 new police stations and 50 new supervisory offices. We have appointed 10,000 force and recruitment of another 18000 force is in process. We are way ahead of our peers in other states as far as police force modernization is concerned. We are committed for the uniform delivery services, the shared.

What we have not achieved in 70 years, we have achieved results in the last five years he informed.

Government’s support for the various initiatives is overwhelming. Probably this could be the only state that bought 11,500 vehicles in one go for police movement , Mahender Reddy informed.

We are working hard in standardizing our service deliveries across the state, DGP shared.

When asked about why general public are afraid of police men whom they are supposed to feel safe around he said only two percent of population use police services. The remaining 98 per cent remain just as tax payers who are paying for our salaries. But they do not come to us. So we have decided to go to communities. We are encouraging our officers to organize meetings like Town Halls to make police go close to the society and bring communities close to the police so that both can understand each other’s felt needs. Police cannot work in isolation without community. Police sacrifices are never known to common people. The Police Public Relations needs to be improved. We must at least appear to be impartial, deliver justice if we have to improve our relationship with the community, he added.

When asked about media influence Reddy stated that media has a greater role to play in connecting us with community. He advised media to avoid showing gruesome scenes, gory incidents, so that they shouldn’t encourage people as well as effect sensitive people. Media is the fourth pillar of the democracy. Social Media is helping us to a great extent to share bouts of communication to the public, he shared

When asked about their limitations in connecting with community he said “police are citizens with uniform and citizens are police without uniform”. No one can function without each other. People are police and police are people. With citizens helping police, we will have 3.5 crore vigilant police in every house rather than uniformed police who are barely a lakh and odd in the state, Mahender Reddy said.

We live for community. Our very existence has no meaning if we don’t work with and work for community he said.

Our ability to prevent crime is much better than dealing with it after it happened, he said responding to an another question.

Commenting on using the force he said, using force is the last resort and has to be used as a last resort after all modes of persuasion failed. Even then the force must be to the barest minimum. It is the officer on the duty in the street must decide and not those who sit in AC on using the force, he said.

Adding further Mr Reddy stated that excess force on one individual must be avoided. It is a matter of our training, correction and learning process.

When asked why can’t people file FIR online, he said, it is the requirement of the law that complainant has to give his verified signature physically that prevents us making it online. We have a system of online complaint but that has to be verified by an officer and take physical signature to register the case. Once anything registered as the FIR, media has the right to publish it as it becomes a public document, he stated. We are seriously thinking on this matter, he added.

UK has been closing police stations and going for online FIR registrations. We too can think towards the same. But, it will take time, he said.

Swati Lakra here added that third party agency monitors when you to go police station to lodge the complaint. To improve the experience we have put the feedback mechanism in place, where the SHO is rated. We are a people friendly police. We train our force in gender sensitivity as well as in soft skills, she stated.

Feedback on the progress of the case by police will go a long in enhancing the image of the police.

FLO members can help rehabilitate some victims as majority of the people involved in crime accidentally. Some cases have traumatizing effects on the complainants. FLO can rehabilitate and counsel such traumatized victims.

On the raising number of vehicles he said if a family has four members all the four have cars. This is adding stress on the road space. On this Sona Chatwani on a lighter vein suggested that why can’t we have a campaign “Hum do and hamare do” on the lines of population to discourage more people owning cars.

Responding on verifying the antecedents of Nepali domestic servants and crimes by some of them he said the servants’ verification practice as in Delhi is long overdue, but that is only possible with people support. But, unfortunately as of now not many residents are coming forward to share those details. We plan to launch some initiatives in this regard very soon he shared.

A FLO member sought DGP’s attention to the mushrooming number of private security agencies, he said that area needs to be regularized soon he said

The member who asked the question informed that just 200 out of 4000 private security agencies that operate in the city are PASARA license holders. Rest of the lot don’t bother. All these private security agencies together employ ten lakh people in twin cities, Shobha shared.

According to Shobha from Paramount Facility Services, PASARA license is mandatory for carrying on business of private security agency. PASARA License is a permission granted under Private Security Agency Regulation Act 2005 which must be taken by any entity dealing or wish to deal in private security agency business.

Pornography is available easily on net to anybody and everybody. It needs to be looked at as a policy frame by Government of India as it falls under their domain Mahendar Reddy stated.

We need to inculcate better values if we have to prevent crime he concluded his interaction. We must bring pressure on governments to add it as part of the school curriculum he suggested.