Threat of COVID-19 along with curfew has thrown life out of gear for most of the people. While majority of them remain indoors, it has brought more responsibility to the police. They have to be out on roads to enforce curfew, enable availability of essential goods and help people maintain personal distance. These are the most trying times as police personnel need to take care of their health too.
But Madurai City Police have not only realized their duties and responsibilities but also their well-being.
Instead of the usual day-long slogging at police stations or on roads for most of the officers and men, they have drafted new working hours for the lockdown period. As per the new schedule, officers and men work only eight hours, that too in two shifts.
The first shift starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 10 a.m. Another batch of men work between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Those in the early morning shift come again for the 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. shift and the second batch works between 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
“While one-third of the strength is being given rest for a week on rotation as part of keeping them in quarantine as a precautionary measure, some skeletal staff get night duty,” Commissioner of Police S. Davidson Devasirvatham said.
All the changes in working pattern is possible as the police do not have court duties, investigation and petition hearing these days. After the roll call at 7 a.m., Inspectors used to have meetings either at offices of ACs or Deputy Commissioners of Police in the mornings. The petition enquiry that starts around 11 a.m. goes on till 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. “Immaterial of the time of taking a break for lunch, all officers have to return for duty at 5 p.m. for evening rounds and the work gets dragged invariably up to 11 p.m.,” a city Inspector of Police said.
All men and officers up to the rank of Assistant Commissioner are happy about the new pattern of work, says the Commissioner.
“With the lockdown, all family members are at home. And spending some quality time with them gives us all energy to work non-stop for the next four hours,” the Inspector said.
Though there are no public meetings, processions and protests in the curfew period, the police are facing a different task.
“We have to enforce curfew - ensure that shops for essential goods remain open only during stipulated time. We need to create awareness among people to remain indoors, maintain social distance. We do vehicle check, seize vehicles, book cases against violators of curfew,” another officer said.
While only one Inspector of the station, either Law and Order or Crime, is on duty in a shift, for stations under newly added areas of the city with single Inspector, and additional Inspector has been deputed.
“Police are talking about social distancing but our men cannot avoid touching others when they do not listen to our instructions. How else can we deal with people who are bent upon violating rules,” a policeman asks.
The policemen and officials do their work risking their lives too. “We need to take lot of pain like washing our clothes and taking a bath every time we return home after duty to safeguard our family members from infection,” a police officer said.
However, with the number of COVID-19 positive cases increasing, the number of people complying with the curfew has gone up.
The added advantage of the curfew is that they do not get calls regarding family quarrels due to closure of TASMAC shops. Similarly, no case of theft is reported as all houses have people round the clock. With fewer vehicles on the road, number of accidents too has come down.
Mr. Davidson said that the top priority has been given to keep people indoors. “We have been straining every nerve to make all essential goods available at all places, including door delivery, so that people need not come out,” he said.
Besides ensuring equitable distribution of work among the police personnel, the Commissioner has encouraged their men to come up with innovative ideas to make people aware of the dangers of COVID-19.
He appreciated Sub-Inspectors of Police, Sivaramakrishnan of Teppakulam and Thiagapriyan of Sellur for organising various competitions for children and street plays.