Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Upgradation of police control room, flying squads under way

G. Anand

All flying squads will carry `feedback forms' in which citizens can post their response

Thiruvananthapuram: The city police are making an attempt to serve the public better by improving the functioning of the police control room and `flying squad' patrol vehicles. However, the effort seems to be an uphill one given the problems dogging the squad.

The `flying squad' was created as the `first response' of the police to distress calls from citizens. Over the years, the squad became a shunting ground for men and officers facing disciplinary action in the department.

The squad has only 14 vehicles to cover entire the City Police District, which also includes relatively far-flung areas such as Vizhinjam, Kovalam and Poonthura. Most of the men serving in the squads are middle-aged. The squad is facing a serious shortage of officers and young police personnel. The department recommendation to assign sub-inspectors for flying squad duty is yet to be implemented.

The squad has about 180 men working in eight-hour shifts. On an average, the police control room receives 100 to 150 calls that require a `flying squad' response.

The daily tasks of the squad include rushing accident victims to hospital, shifting persons found dead on the street to morgues, taking drunken and unconscious people to clinics, helping the aged and the infirm and even shifting mentally ill derelicts to sanatoriums. Escorting VIP vehicles forms a major part of the squad's work.

Inspector General of Police, South Zone, Arun Kumar Sinha, said the police were seeking the cooperation of the public to audit the functioning of the city control room and the flying squad. All flying squads will henceforth carry `feed back forms.'

The form is actually a questionnaire printed on an inland addressed to the Commissioner of Police. The squad officer will be required to give the `feedback form' to the citizen whose distress call he has attended. The citizen can post his response back to the Commissioner.

On the technological front, the control room is undergoing several improvements. For one, the city police have installed an electronic device for recording all wireless and telephone communications. Soon, all flying squads will be equipped with Global Positioning Systems.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

`Opposition is helping commercial interests'
State makes a case for wagon factory
Lack of trust among LDF allies: Chandy
Upgradation of police control room, flying squads under way
Departments told to identify requirements
Clash sparks off tension at Kattakada, five detained
Vigilance inquiry into purchase of meters
GREF official from city dies in Uttaranchal
Renovated railway platform commissioned
New forest policy soon
Blame it on the rain
Around the City
In Tiruvananthapuram Today
Reader's Mail

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu