Abingdonboy
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K.K. Sindhu, 50, became the police commissioner of Gurgaon, the fast-growing outsourcing city south of New Delhi, last November. The Indian Police Service officer studied civil engineering and worked as a resource officer with the federal Ministry of Water Resources before joining the police service in 1986. “Policing is much better,” he said in a recent interview with India Ink.
Home to the India corporate headquarters for General Electric, Coca-Cola, Nestle and more than 1.5 million people (up 70 percent in the last decade), it struggles with crime and a growing unrest among residents over the state of basic amenities like roads and utilities.
The National Crime Records Bureau 2010 report says 6,736 cases of crime were registered in Gurgaon, a slight drop from 2008’s 7,170 cases. Of the 2010 crimes, more than half were theft cases, of which most were auto theft cases.
Q.
What are the main challenges that you face in maintaining law and order in Gurgaon?
A.
The same kinds of problems that the police face everywhere. But, I would say that since Gurgaon is a developing city, there is a lot of pressure from the migrant or floating population.
The biggest problem in our city is traffic and regulating the traffic in a better manner. In the past year, we have taken several steps including enlisting experts to decongest traffic and demolishing some of the existing roundabouts at busy crossings. Traffic is our main priority, it affects every citizen.
Q.
What are the goals that you have set for yourself as police chief?
A.
When I came here three months back, the two priorities for me were traffic and crime. I told everyone that this is a tough area.
On the traffic side, as I mentioned, this is a growing city with a lot of pressure on the infrastructure. We are doing a lot of work with other agencies in upgrading our capacity and regulating. In fact we have even given “third eye” mobiles to more than 100 traffic police officers, who take pictures of traffic offenders and directly upload them to the server [in the Police Control Room].
The second area is crime, so we are building and training our teams and using extensive technology like making use of computerized data to track criminals and map crime.
Q.
Within crime is there some specific kind of crime that you would like to tackle?
A.
Within crime, vehicle theft. We have arrested a number of gangs.
We are trying to create awareness among residents to be more careful. There have been number of instances where they [people] had left their cars unattended with the keys inside. In India there is no parking space. Due to the newly acquired wealth, every family wants three or four cars, when they don’t have space to even park a scooter.
People also have to respond. If they can spend 30-40 lakh rupees ($61,000-81,000 approx.) on buying new vehicles can’t they spare money for a GPS?
Even if a thief steals a vehicle [fitted with GPS] you can trace his location and catch him in no time.
Q.
Is the ongoing construction activity hampering policing in the city?
A.
I wouldn’t call it hampering. It is a part of the development process.
Within our organization, in 2007 we changed the system of local policing. New posts were created, induction and training is going on. We’re also growing as the city is growing, and have added almost 2,000 officers in the past four years.
Q.
Are these numbers sufficient for the 1.5 million odd people living in Gurgaon?
A.
From an organizational point of view, if you ask anyone, even in your field, there will be a constant demand for larger number of people. But the way we are handling things, I think they are moving in the right direction.
Q.
Are guns or firearms a problem?
A.
Not much. In fact I would say that the entire north [India] is the least weaponized society. Almost 80 percent of crime cases which involve crimes against people are committed without using firearms. That shows the general reflection of the society.
That’s unlike other countries including America, where even school children carry guns and there are shootouts in schools. But you would have hardly heard about such incidents in this part.
Q.
It was not too long ago [2007] when a 14-year-old boy was shot dead in a school in Gurgaon by his classmates?
A.
But in 50 years if there is only one such incident, I will not call it routine, it is an exception.
Q.
Social media, mainly Facebook is being used as a tool by the Gurgaon police to handle the traffic situation. How does that help?
A.
The profile and background of people here is different. They are more educated and we like to use a medium like the Web, which they are more comfortable with, and be at ease with them.
We take the feedback of people via our Facebook page. If I am sitting at home, I can take comments from them, which is more convenient for them, as well. We want to have maximum access to the population.
The traffic department has deployed people round- the-clock to attend to any complaints received online and to take appropriate action.
Q.
Most of the multinationals in Gurgaon have an army of security guards of their own. Does that interfere with your functioning and operations?
A.
Haryana is one of the few states where we have introduced the private security organization bill. All security agencies have to be registered with the government; unless they are registered we don’t allow them in our area. We check their credentials, their training facilities, structure and also see if they have sufficient number of trainers and supervisors.
Q.
Is it true that Gurgaon will soon have its own high-tech electronic surveillance system?
A.
We have already sanctioned the Outdoor Surveillance System [project]. In that system all the entry and exit points in Gurgaon will be monitored by surveillance cameras. Similarly, important crossing and important markets, too, will be monitored by these cameras. That will also help catch offenders easily. If someone is jumping a red light the vehicle number will be automatically recorded.
The budget has been allocated, the government procedures are in their last stages. In fact, we are in the process of finalizing the vendor. It will be in place hopefully very soon.
This system will cover Faridabad [another city in Haryana state] as well as Gurgaon and the total cost is almost 60 crore rupees ($12 million approx.). Funding is not a problem for our department.
Q.
An “eve-teasing” case on New Year’s Eve, where a woman walking outside a Gurgaon mall was attacked by a group of young men before the police fought them off, is still very fresh in public memory. What is your department doing for improved safety of women in the city?
A.
You should take a look at our Facebook post on this and see the comments from people, everyone appreciated the police effort. The number of people on the road that night was almost three times than last year. I was out, every man from this department was on the road that evening. We ensured that everything went off peacefully. That is why there was not a single complaint except that one. In such a big city when people were celebrating at several places there wasn’t a single complaint of even pick-pocketing. What else do you need?
Our focus is not just prevention of eve-teasing. When we checked people for drunken driving, we noticed that while [drunk] men would be sitting behind, the women driving were also drunk. So, now we have dedicated traffic wings that comprise women only. Our DCP [deputy commissioner of police] for traffic is a lady officer.
We are taking care of all aspects; we deploy more lady police officers in areas where the movement of women is more.
Q.
There is a perception, not specific to your department, that the police do not reach the scene of crime on time; they take too long to respond to a situation.
A.
As far as the perception is concerned, we have some of the most modern police stations. You dial 100 [from your landline], whenever you have a problem and just lodge a complaint, I keep telling people.
The conversations are recorded and so is the response time. In only few instances people have complained to me, we enquired and found that our response time was very good in all the instances.
In the police control room we have a large number of people attending to the calls that they receive, they only direct the relevant person to reach the spot. All the police control room vehicles are GPS-fitted. So, whether they are on the spot or not the control room people know it.
If there is any complaint we enquire, if there is a lapse we take stringent action. We don’t spare any wrong-doers.
Q.
Many times when people approach a police constable they find it is hard to get any job done without paying him/her a bribe.
A.
It is a problem not only within our department, all departments are getting affected. I have spent more than six years in the state vigilance bureau in Haryana. There also this [corruption] was a problem.
When people [officers] asked for bribes no one complained because they just wanted to get their work done. Here as well, I have zero tolerance for this nonsense. I tell people if anyone is demanding money or harassing you, just let me know.
But they often don’t do it. How can we take action without a complaint? Even with the traffic situation, we have introduced a system where, if someone is asking for a bribe, an anonymous complaint can be sent to us, we will inquire into it and take action.
Q.
Do you think the salaries that are paid to police officers are adequate?
A.
The salaries are more than sufficient after the government introduced the sixth pay commission [which revised salaries for government employees]. In fact the government is paying more than what their capacity is. The average salary at the lowest rank is almost 20,000 rupees ($400 approx.) a month. All officers up to the inspector rank whenever they stay in police stations they don’t pay any rent or electricity bills, their food is highly subsidized, their uniform is also provided by the government.
A Former Engineer is the Top Cop in India's Fast-Growing Outsourcing Center of Gurgaon - NYTimes.com
