Amidst reports of police personnel getting infected by coronavirus, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked States/Union Territories to prepare a second line of defence to ensure sustainment of the control strategy for COVID-19.

In a note to all Chief Secretaries/Director-Generals of Police, the MHA said police forces need to prepare an effective second line of defence to make up for the police personnel who may be rendered ineffective due to COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.

While a majority of police personnel were deployed for attending to COVID-19 related work and other policing duties, Head of Police Forces (HoPFs) may consider the option of ‘Work from Home’ for personnel not deployed on frontline duties where feasible, the communication said.

Home Guards, Civil Defence personnel, NCC cadets, Scouts & Guides and Student Police Cadets could be utilised in areas where there were no imminent law and order issues. “They can especially be of help in maintaining order at the relief centres and in facilitating the maintenance of supply chain and for coordinating other essential services.”

Helping the public

The MHA said that while performing COVID-19 related duties, police/security personnel should help the general public and deal with them with empathy and compassion, especially with the weaker sections of the society. They should monitor religious and social congregations during festivals to ensure social distancing. Police should also be watchful of migrant labourers/ slum areas to contain any unexpected and undesirable mass movement.

The Centre’s instructions follow after States reported COVID-19 infections among police and security deployed as frontline workers performing duties to implement lockdown orders and government guidelines for containing the spread of the disease.

In Tamil Nadu, the DGP had recently issued instructions that at least 25 per cent of the 1.25 lakh police force could stay at home in order to keep a healthy reserve force standby to meet exigencies.

“It is imperative to make police personnel aware of the precautions to be taken while performing their assigned tasks in order to ensure that the strategy adopted for containing COVID-19 spread remains sustainable. Police authorities may take necessary precautions to sanitise the physical environment at the place of duty of police…lot of awareness has been generated about the infection through various campaigns by the Government,” it added.

COVID-19 Cells

The MHA said Police Control Rooms may be expanded, resourced and designed to incorporate special COVID-19 Cells, to exclusively look after all issues relating to the pandemic. The staff manning these COVID-19 cells should be trained on elementary modules relating to the epidemic and briefed about appropriate responses to help engage with issues and scenarios they are likely to be confronted with. Such COVID-19 Cells should be adequately equipped with men and material, including drones which may be used for aerial reconnaissance.