‘Jadoo’ is new mantra of Nagpur police to combat crime

NAGPUR: A comprehensive package of measures, labelled Joint Anti-crime Deployment Operations Offensives or

‘Jadoo’

, has been adopted by city police this year to improve safety of citizens and their property.

In 2017, 26 crimes were registered in the city every day on an average, which is slightly fewer than the year before. Apart from overall crime sliding by 2%, there was a dip in atrocities against women too, as per the data released by city police.

Among the negatives, various types of thefts increased from around four in a day in 2016 to almost three-times, 12 in a day in 2017. Motor vehicle thefts, burglaries and cheating too witnessed a slight rise.

The city police are now implementing several transforming concepts under the supervision of CP K

Venkatesham

and Jt CP Shivaji Bodkhe. They are gearing up for a holistic approach to anti-crime measures, spread across eight broad aspects. The factors they are trying to cover are crime prevention, special transformative initiative, routinely reporting results of people’s reaction to policing, reformation in training and defining policing craft, recalibration of organizational incentives, strengthen accountability with more transparency, incorporation of crime analysis, and citizen reaction to managerial practice and strengthening of research and evaluation wing.

Venkatesham said the existing measures of last year would be continued and bolstered with inclusions of the modified aims, based on the needs and requirements of the new year. “We have coined the term Jadoo beginning with the word ‘joint’ as the objective is to collaborate with various stakeholders in the society like citizens, advocates, press and others, who are directly or indirectly part of the society and are concerned with policing aspects,” said the CP.

The priorities in crime prevention would include analysing hotspots and designing suitable interventions measures with the help of police station beat staffers at the grass roots level. The beat mapping of

CCTV

cameras is being taken up to reduce blind spots at maximum possible places.

The CP said the Smart City project is already blanketing the city with CCTV cameras, but there could still be certain stretches that are crucial from the policing point of view. “The stretches which police feel need CCTV camera coverage would also be brought under electronic surveillance with the involvement of citizens and other organizations,” he said.

Apart from these initiatives, the city police plan adds much importance to public perception and citizens’ feedback, which would be included in formulating the future course of actions and service delivery.