HYDERABAD: Faced with widespread public outrage in the aftermath of the gory
murder at an arterial road in Attapur on Wednesday, the police top brass in
Telangana on Thursday held a brainstorming session to chalk out a sustainable plan to train and equip the force to prevent such horrific drama playing out on streets.
In a significant step, the meeting convened by
DGP M
Mahendar Reddy decided that field level policemen should be given special training on how to react when offenders resort to violent assaults. The top brass is also considering equipping constables with non-lethal arms such as tasers and pepper spray to disarm and immobilize assailants.
On Thursday morning, IT minister KT Rama Rao tweeted requesting the DGP and three city police commissioners to “review and equip the policemen on ground with adequate training so they can be alert and responsive.” After KTR’s tweet, DGP held a review meeting with senior cops, including city police commissioners to devise plans to prevent violent crimes. “We have discussed the recent incidents and decided to come up with modalities to prevent such things from happening in future,” said the DGP.
Officers privy to the discussion told TOI that it was decided to give specific training to field level cops from the rank of constable to subinspector on how to react when they had to confront assaulters. Since short firearms are issued only to subinspector and above levels, constables on patrolling duties carry only batons.
During Attapur attack, the constables on the spot had only batons. “We discussed equipping the field staff with non-lethal weapons such as tasers and pepper sprays to immobilize violent attackers,” said Cyberabad commissioner V C Sajjanar.
The unit officers were asked to analyse the revenge killings in the last three years to profile the victims and the accused so that potential assaulters could be kept under surveillance. Officers were also told to ensure that CCTV footages of violent crimes do not get circulated as repeated telecast of the violent footage on media was negatively influencing public psyche and resulting in more such attacks.
