Coimbatore: City police commissioner K Periaiah on Thursday said the city police control room had received more than 10,000 phone calls from the general public so far this year and 90% of them were attended to within five minutes. He said the city police were taking steps to reduce the response timing to four minutes.
A section of police officers said there were only three police stations – Singanallur, Peelamedu and Saravanapatti - in the east sub-division of the city and they had to cover vast areas. “So, four-wheeler and two-wheeler patrolling systems have to be increased there to better the response timing.”
The city police have 23 four-wheelers, which have been used for patrolling in the city round-the-clock, and seven four-wheelers equipped with GPS, which allows location of vehicles to be monitored from the modern control room.
In November 2016, the city police had introduced dedicated beat system and identified 44 beats across 15 police station limits. As many as 174 beat officers were appointed, with each beat getting four police personnel. While two police personnel were deployed in their beats at peak hours (8am-11am and 4pm-8 pm), the remaining two were given night rounds. They were provided with 44 motorcycles.
Now, calls to100 first reach the master control room in Chennai from where they are diverted to the respective district and city police control rooms and respective police stations.
“We have received 10,822 phone calls since January this year and we have responded to most of them within 5 minutes,” said S Lakshmi, deputy commissioner of police (law & order), Coimbatore city.
According to police sources, cops attached to Singanallur, Peelamedu and Saravanampatti police stations would take at least eight minutes to reach the spot after receiving the phone calls from the general public, as the police limits cover a vast area. “More number of patrolling vehicles should be provided to these three police stations for quick response timing.”
Periaiah said the city police have two highway patrols and they cover the L&T bypass road. “In times of emergency, they also attend the emergency phone calls.”
