Bangalore Police : Your friendly neighbourhood cop will now take complaints at your door

To aid those who hesitate to approach the police with a complaint, Bangalore police has decided to arrive at the doorstep.

A new beat system was launched in north-east division on Sunday, as a first step to making the police more approachable.Constables will be on beat duty on day and night shifts, and the new system hopes to incorporate the support of citizens too to help prevent crime.

The beat system, which had gone out of favour for a decade, is now being revived. Policemen from respective jurisdictional police stations will be made in-charge of streets.

“The policeman on duty will be responsible for maintaining law and order in his area. The police will have a network, and all the people in the area will be part of the system to better maintain law and order,” said city police commissioner BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji, adding that the new system would increase the responsibility of the police.

Members of the public in each locality would be expected to get in touch with the beat constable about any suspicious activity.
“When crime in each street is controlled, then the whole city will be peaceful,” said Mirji. He said that the residents would be involved in the vigilance maintained by the police.

Members of the public suggested that the night beat constable be armed with a rifle, as there were cases when the culprits assaulted policemen.

Police also hope that the beat constable would be able to resolve family disputes.

The city police commissionerasserted that members of the public should inform higher authorities if they face harassment at the hands of policemen or if they find the cops unwilling toregister complaints.

“My phone will be switched on 24 hours. We will take necessary steps to ensure that incidents of harassment do not get repeated. But the public should also treat policemen as human beings,” said Mirji.

channai Police: City & suburban police offices in for merger

CHENNAI: The government has decided to merge the city and suburban police commissionerates into one unit headed by one commissioner but functioning as two geographical zones under additional commissioners.

Accepting a proposal from the police department, chief minister J Jayalalithaa, who is also the home minister, is likely to announce the merger either at the Independence Day parade on August 15 or during the state assembly's budget session that starts August 4.

The merger has been proposed to improve coordination and communication between the police in city and the rapidly growing suburbs. But the decision may mean that suburbanites may have to travel to the Egmore commissioner office to lodge complaints while earlier they had one in St Thomas Mount.

The police department had come up with two proposals. Plan A suggested a complete merger of city and suburb. But the united commissionerate will be divided into two zones – with the dividing line running east-west along Chepauk and Poonamallee. Plan B recommended that the St Thomas Mount police district, currently under suburban limits be included in city. The government has reportedly favoured Plan A. "This decision not only revives the Greater Chennai police commissionerate concept but also facilitate better policing, good administration and coordination," a senior police officer told TOI.

Many in the police community have welcomed the proposal. "Peripheral areas are growing very fast. More and more the lifestyle, mindset and traffic flow patterns of the suburbs are becoming similar to the city. I feel that the policing was better under the one-commissioner system until 2008. If the merger happens, crime prevention and detection will improve," former DGP V Vaikunth told TOI. During his service, Vaikunth, in 1995, did a study on the Madras metropolitan policing system. Based on his report, the then AIADMK government had extracted St Thomas Mount, Ambattur and Madhavaram police districts from Chengai East and merged them with city.

The merger proposal has been criticized by a few officers, especially those in the suburb. They say that it would be difficult to police and administer faraway places from the city. Also, residents from the suburbs will have to travel a long distance to come to the commissioner's office and file complaints. "Instead of just the commissioner being of IG rank, every police district must be headed by additional commissioners of IG rank. Two deputy commissioners along with two assistant commissioners should be provided to take care of the district. This means that people can go to the additional commissioner with complaints," Vaikunth told TOI.

Supporting the merger idea, former DGP WI Dawaram said: "Chennai harbour, airport and other major office premises should be come under city police limit," he told TOI.

London Police: Hacking scandal fells Britain’s top policeman

LONDON - A phone-hacking scandal centred on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp cost Britain’s top policeman his job and renewed questions on Monday about Prime Minister David Cameron’s judgment.

In another major development in a scandal that has shaken Britons’ faith in the police, press and political leaders, detectives arrested Rebekah Brooks, former head of News Corp’s British newspaper arm, on suspicion of intercepting communications and corruption.
The flame-haired Brooks, who once edited the News of the World tabloid, was released on bail at midnight on Sunday, about 12 hours after she went to a London police station to be arrested, her spokesman said. Brooks has denied any wrongdoing.
Analysts said the gathering pace of heads rolling had turned up the heat on Cameron and Murdoch over their handling of the scandal, with the media tycoon due to be questioned by parliament in a possible showdown on Tuesday.

The News of the World, which published its final edition a week ago, is alleged to have hacked up to 4,000 phones including that of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, sparking a furore that forced Murdoch to close the paper and drop a $12 billion plan to buy all of highly profitable broadcaster BSkyB .
Paul Stephenson, London’s police commissioner, quit on Sunday in the face of allegations that police officers had accepted money from the paper and had not done enough to investigate hacking charges that surfaced as far back as 2005.
The trigger for his resignation was revelations he had stayed at a luxury spa at which Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, was a public relations adviser. Wallis, also employed by police as a consultant, was arrested last week in connection with the hacking scandal.
“I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice (of phone-hacking),” Stephenson said in a televised statement.
Brooks quit on Friday as chief executive of News International, the British unit of Murdoch’s News Corp , but has denied she knew of the alleged widespread nature of the hacking.

The scandal has raised concerns not only about unethical media practices but about the influence Murdoch has wielded over British political leaders and allegations of cosy relationships between some of his journalists and police.
Cameron has come under fire for his friendship with Brooks and for employing former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his press secretary after Coulson quit the paper in 2007 following the jailing of a reporter for phone-hacking.
Tim Bale, politics professor at the University of Sussex, said: “It has become almost a crisis of governance in the United Kingdom. (Stephenson’s) resignation takes us beyond a few bad apples ... There is a sense of things sliding out of control.
“The actual text of (Stephenson’s) statement pointing to parallels between himself and the prime minister is quite breathtaking. It won’t make Mr Cameron do the same thing, but it reminds people once again of the Coulson problem.”
The opposition Labour Party, which has capitalised on Cameron’s discomfort, seized on Stephenson’s reference to the Coulson appointment in his resignation speech.
“It is striking that Sir Paul Stephenson has taken responsibility and answered questions about the appointment of the deputy editor of the News of the World,” Labour home affairs spokeswoman Yvette Cooper said.
“The prime minister still refuses to recognise his misjudgment and answer questions on the appointment of the editor of the News of the World at the time of the initial phone hacking investigation.”
Cameron took office last May at the head of a Conservative-led coalition that has made cleaning up the public finances its priority.

GLOBAL CONCERN
With politicians from Australia to the United States demanding to know if similar abuses occurred elsewhere in Murdoch’s global media business, the 80-year-old has been forced on the defensive and the position of his son James as heir-apparent has been called into question.
Brooks and Rupert and James Murdoch are due to be questioned by parliament on Tuesday, including over reports that News International misled legislators during earlier hearings.
But Brooks’s spokesman said her arrest might cast doubt on whether she could appear before politicians.
“Anything that will be said at the select committee hearing could have implications for the police inquiry,” said David Wilson, adding Brooks was “shocked” by the arrest.

The Financial Times reported on Monday that Labour legislator Tom Watson had written to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) asking it to investigate payments he alleged were made by News Corp to cover up the scandal.
A SFO spokesman said he did not know if the letter had been received but that the agency would take such a request “very seriously”.
Brooks became the focus of widespread anger over the phone-hacking scandal but was initially protected by Murdoch, who guided her rise through the male-dominated world of UK tabloid journalism to become editor of the News of the World in 2000 and the Sun’s first female editor in 2003.
But her initial refusal to quit, and a faltering speech she delivered when she closed the News of the World and ended the careers of dozens of colleagues, prompted some journalists to say she was out of touch.
In 2003, Brooks said the News of the World had made payments to police in the past but could not remember any specific examples.
Murdoch, who some media commentators say at first misjudged the strength of public anger, published apologies in several British newspapers at the weekend.
He lost another loyal executive on Friday when Les Hinton, another former head of his UK newspaper business, resigned as chief executive of Murdoch’s Dow Jones & Co which publishes The Wall Street Journal.
Key facts about London police chief Paul Stephenson
• Stephenson was forced to abandon his official duties in January this year after suffering complications following operations to remove a pre-cancerous growth from his leg. He returned to work in April, one month earlier than expected.
• He ordered a review of the News Corp phone-hacking investigation in July 2009 after extensive media coverage. But after just eight hours consideration, the decision was taken by the officer he appointed, John Yates, that there was no new evidence that warranted the inquiry to be reopened.
• Stephenson came under fire on a number of occasions after becoming Metropolitan Police Commissioner. He was forced to apologise for his force’s handling of the riots that broke out in London during the G20 summit in April 2009 in which a newspaper vendor was killed after a clash with an officer.
• Media reported he apologised to the royal family and that he also tendered his resignation after a car belonging to Prince Charles was attacked by rioters during a demonstration against rising student fees in the capital in December last year.
• Stephenson became a police officer in 1975 when he joined Lancashire Police in northern England. Apart from a stint with the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, he remained in the force until he became Assistant Chief Constable of Merseyside Police in the city of Liverpool in October 1994.
• He returned to Lancashire in May 1999 when he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable before becoming Chief Constable in July 2002. In March 2005, he was appointed Deputy Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police Service and took the top job in British policing in January 2009 following the resignation of Commissioner Ian Blair, after he too was forced out after months of media pressure.

Gujrat Police: Police arrest stepson for killing woman ASI

AHMEDABAD: The mystery behind the murder of a woman assistant sub-inspector of police has been solved. Her stepson was arrested by Naroda police on Sunday. Cops said that it was a property dispute that drove Dinesh Rohankar, the stepson, to kill the woman cop Sharda, 52. Dinesh has been booked for conspiracy and murder of Sharda.

According to Naroda police, Sharda was killed with a blunt weapon at her residence at Sun bungalows, near Parshwanath Township in Naroda on Saturday. She was posted at the women police station in Karanj. Dinesh had claimed to have chanced upon her body and he had raised an alarm to draw attention of other family members and neighbours.

"We got suspicious about Dinesh's activities. He claimed that finding the door locked, he had broken the window and spotted Sharda's body. He could have easily gone to the back of the house to check. We also noticed that the killer had mopped up the entire place to clean blood stains from the floor. Also, there was nothing missing from the house which eliminated the possibility of an armed robbery. The final clue was tea and milk near the gas stove which pointed towards the presence of someone known to the victim," said G H Gohil, inspector of Naroda police station.

Mumbai Police : Mumbai blasts: CM may head small team to monitor police

The state government is looking to set up a ‘cohesive structure’ headed by Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to improve policing in Maharashtra. Chavan would prefer a cabinet sub-committee or a small group of ministers to direct modernisation of the police force and keep an eye on the
overall security situation, said sources close to the chief minister.

Chavan was likely to speak to Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar to work things out between the allies as, under the power-sharing arrangement, the NCP holds the Home portfolio. He may also consult former Chief Ministers.

“Chavan has said security has not been on the agenda in the cabinet meetings since he took over as CM. He also believes it is difficult to discuss security issues, which are generally technical, with a group of as many as 40 ministers,’’ said a senior official in the Chief Minister’s Office.

Chavan had said in interviews last week that home portfolio should not have been given to the NCP, though he had clarified that he had full faith in Home Minister RR Patil.

Chavan had recently admitted to procedural problems in buying equipment and improving facilities for the police. The sources said his view was decisions had to be taken at the political and not administrative level to cut through the red tape.

On Sunday, the chief minister himself told the media: “The state had formed a state security council and a state security commission for taking the security agenda forward after the 26/11 attacks. We have to see how to take that forward or have some kind of alternative, more cohesive structure. Our main worry now is how to prevent another such attack and we are looking at all possible solutions.’’

“We are looking at upgrading communication networks in Mantralaya by buying satellite phones, upgrading wireless systems, and purchasing better radio frequency channels. I will also take a meeting soon to finalise purchase of CCTVs for Mumbai. I think they will be of help in deterring such attacks and in detection. This has been the case in London.’’

He may hold a meeting on Monday on buying 5,000 CCTV cameras for Mumbai. In a bid to attract better talent to intelligence postings, Chavan is also looking at better remuneration for these jobs and making such a stint mandatory for promotions.

Gujrat Police: Police foil bomb plot in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD — A plot to disturb this communally sensitive city was foiled when police arrested a man from his house in the old city and recovered at least 10 crude bombs he had hidden near a desolate pond in his neighbourhood.

The police said Shahzad, who had made the explosives using nails, glass pieces, ball bearings, gun powder etc, had planned to use them for explosions during the July 3 annual religious procession, ‘Rathyatra’, in the city.

However, he told the interrogators, he could not carry out his plans because of very tight security with some 15,000 policemen patrolling the city. Shahzad said he was re-inspired by the July 13 Mumbai bomb blasts and wanted to execute his plan during a major Hindu festival, ‘Janmashtmi’, next month.

The police also recovered two country-made pistols and live cartridges from his home. Surprisingly, the police were tipped off about Shahzad’s bomb-making expertise by his wife who was angry after a tiff with him on Saturday night.

In a fit of rage, she told the control room in the wee hours of Sunday that her husband had threatened to destroy their home with a bomb. The cops raided his home within minutes and arrested Shahzad after they found a crude bomb in the dingy house. Soon, he led the police to a nearby pond where he had hidden 10 more bombs.

A series of 24 synchronised bombings ripped Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, killing 56 people and injuring 240 people. Again, around 24 dud bombs were recovered in Surat the next day. The court has till now framed charges against 64 accused while 34 others are still absconding. The trial in the case is to begin soon.

maharastra police:Nagpur railway police cracks CM wife's purse theft case

MUMBAI/ NAGPUR: The stolen handbag of Satvasheela Chavan, wife of chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, was retrieved by the government railway police (GRP) with the arrest of one person. Satvasheela was travelling in the Maharashtra Express when her handbag containing Rs 40,000 in cash, a cellphone and a debit card was stolen near Manmad on July 9. GRP officials have also detained one more person in the case and are probing his role.

Satvasheela's stolen handset provided important leads to the police. "We used latest electronic surveillance including cell site location tracing. All calls made from the handset in the period were scanned. Cellphone tracking was also done," superintendent of police (Nagpur railway) Yashasvi Yadav told TOI. "The IMEI technology was also used simultaneously to trace the stolen handset," he said.

Yadav, a tech-savvy officer and recipient of international award,

said that local crime branch team under him was put on the job after the sensational theft came to the fore.

The phone had been switched off and Satvasheela's Sim card had been replaced with a new one. "We are questioning the person in whose name the new Sim card was registered. He has been detained and we are probing the extent of his involvement," an official said. Most of the stolen valuables have been recovered.

GRP officials added that the prime accused appears to be a hardened criminal. "Items stolen from other passengers like laptops, cellphones and other valuables were also recovered. Unsolved past cases will be detected with this arrest," the official said.

"Offences on the railways are usually difficult to detect as long distances are involved and criminals don't have a fixed residence. The case was a big challenge to us," said Yadav, whose LCB team solved the theft in less than a week.

Satvasheela had boarded the Kolhapur-Gondia Maharashtra Express from Karad to visit a medical college in Jalgaon. She was travelling in one of the air-conditioned two-tier coaches. Two police guards were accompanying her. Nobody realised that her handbag was stolen till the train reached Manmad in Nashik district. Sources said when the cops dialled Satvasheela's stolen phone, someone answered the call but later switched it off.

The LCB team is likely to reach Nagpur in Geetanjali Express with the accused. It was the first major detection by railway police after IIT alumni Yadav took over the reigns of the Nagpur railway police recently and revived the dormant LCB unit injecting fresh lease of life into it.