The police department has decided to procure 275 such tablets that will be given to the beat constables. (Illustration CR Sasikumar)THE CHANDIGARH Police shall soon be equipping its beat constables with smart gadgets – tablets running on Android operating system. The beat constables who used to be carrying bulky paper notebooks while going in the residential and commercial areas across the city to collect details of people shall now be feeding these in the tablets.
The police department has decided to procure 275 such tablets that will be given to the beat constables. After getting a nod from the UT Administration, the Tender Document Formulation Committee of Chandigarh Police has cleared the proposal.
A senior police officer told Chandigarh Newsline, “This initiative was taken under the E-beat policy of Chandigarh Police, in which we decided to change the traditional way of maintaining the beat record. It is also a step towards the eco-friendly police system that will lead to less paper work. We will prefer to give these gadgets to police personnel, who already have good basic knowledge of computer and android operating system.”
The Chandigarh Police has 17 police stations out of which 16 police stations have 165 beats and 82 beat incharges. One women police station does not have any beat in its jurisdiction.
One of the beat policeman, posted in Sector 17 police station, said, “We have learnt that we shall be given tablets in the coming days. We shall also be given around 20-day training about how to use such gadgets. The earlier record that we have collected shall also be fed in these tablets.”
SSP, UT, Nilambri Vijay Jagdale, said, “One beat incharge is deputed on two beats. The beat incharge shall be given this tablet. The Additional Station House Officer in each police station shall also be given one tablet to supervise the record collection by the beat incharge.”
Beat system in the police department is a concept in which the jurisdiction of a police station is divided into separate portions called as “beats” for patrolling and surveillance purposes. A team of at least five police personnel, mainly in the ranks of constables and head constables, are deployed in these beats.
Earlier, there were 146 police beats. The number was recently increased to 162 for better patrolling across the city. The maximum number of police beats are in the area of Sector 39 police station, Manimajra police station and Sector 34 police station because of the large area and population covered by these police stations.
A police beat team is responsible for maintaining the record of street vendors, shopkeepers, senior citizens, suspected persons and residents who have a criminal background. The beat team is also responsible for regularly updating this record.
