30 new police checkpoints to come up at crime hot spots in Gurugram

The police on Wednesday decided to change the positioning of checkpoints across Gurugram on the basis of the crime pattern that has emerged through mapping over the last few months. The decision, taken during a meeting convened by police commissioner KK Rao on Wednesday, is meant to especially crack down on burglars and gangs involved in lifting vehicles. The police will also step up checking of vehicles during the day in response to a rise in the number of such cases in the daytime, senior police officers said.

In addition to the existing 70 checkpoints across the city, 30 more spots were identified during the Wednesday meeting. The new checkpoints were activated at 11:30 pm Wednesday, police said, adding that though they have been able to control street crimes, the major challenges now were vehicle thefts and house break-ins.

In the last three months, most burglaries, cases of vehicle lifting and laptop thefts from cars were reported from DLF Phase-1, Palam Vihar, sectors 56, 57, 5 and 4, and Sohna Road area, the police said.

Though these area have checkpoints, it was decided that more would be installed near the entry and exit of residential areas, on roads leading to the city’s borders and isolated stretches such as Bajghera border, Golf Course Extension Road, Sector 54 (near Suncity Township), among others from where a high number of incidents of vehicle theft and burglaries were reported.

Assistant commissioner of police (crime) Shamsher Singh said they have increased the number of checkpoints and in crime-prone areas, such as Palam Vihar, Sector 57 and Golf Course Road, connecting to residential colonies and new developing sectors. “We have also formed teams of personnel from the district police’s crime investigation agency (CIA) to keep tab on anti-social elements across the city,” Singh said, adding that through measures adopted since crime mapping first started, they were able to reduce instances of chain snatching and vehicle thefts, which were the most-frequently reported street crimes.

Crime mapping of the city was initiated in June last year and has helped bring down the number of daily vehicle theft cases. According to the police, from the average 11 vehicles stolen every day in 2017, the number dropped slightly to eight per day, between October and December last year and now has come down to five per day.

“There has been a drastic dip in chain snatching cases this year. Only one case has been reported since January this year from Sector 5, whereas last year 55 cases were reported in this period,” Singh said.

Additionally, police said that the position of checkpoints will be reviewed periodically after three months to ensure all areas of the city are covered and crime pattern of each area is recorded.

Police said that four to six personnel will being deployed at each checkpoint, where the police will stop and inspect all suspected drivers and vehicles passing by.

It was also decided that crime teams will be deployed for checking during the day time. Instances of daytime thefts and burglaries have increased in the past few months.

Another development during the meeting was to deploy a night checking officer who will visit the crime spots at night and will submit the report every day to the ACP (crime). This will help crime teams know the exact crime pattern. The night checking officer will be on duty between 11pm and 6am. This deployment will be assigned on a rotation basis.

“We have directed the police control room to compile separate reports of calls received during the day and at night. This will help us map the time of criminal activities,” Singh said.

The station house officers have also been directed to deploy adequate officials on the police control room (PCR) van duty while ensuring that the routine station work does not suffer.

Night patrolling was intensified in July last year. A total of 1,880 policemen, out of 6,203, are on night duty on a regular basis. The police teams now work in three shifts of eight hours each, instead of working in two shifts of a longer duration, which has improved their efficiency.

First Published: Feb 21, 2019 14:29 IST