The city being named as the Smart City has the need of smart policing as well. In order to make this happen, we need a strong police force and have the required manpower and infrastructure. It is saddening that the city lacks both. Apart from being under staffed the city police also have a number of proposals sent by the Commissionerate which are being piled up.
The police commissionerate has sent proposals to strengthen its women force, increase the strength of City Security Wing (CSW), City Task Force (CTF), Special Branch, Counter Intelligence and traffic wing as well. Right now, the commissionerate has a total strength of about 3,300 out of the women constitute about 2.3% when the actual requirement is about 33%. The CSW is the wing which takes care of the VVIP and VIP security is in urgent requirement of at least 100 trained commandos to provide adequate to security to all.
It is also known that the commissionerate had to reduce the security for its officers in order to provide security to the local politicians. The city having a number of strategic installations, the counter intelligence team has to be strengthened. The commissionerate also said that a proposal has been sent to start another CTF police station apart from the existing one. The Commissioner of police, T Yoganand reportedly said that,”We need at least two CTF police stations for the two zones and the strength also needs to be increased, as CTF takes care of a whole gamut of operation and enforcement duty right from ganja and drug smuggling to immoral trafficking and from arresting inter-state gang to curbing gaming menace“.
Visakhapatnam being large than Hyderabad and Cyberabad put together has a lesser police force. Right now the strength in Hyderabad and Cyberabad Police Commissionerates are 14,716 and 7,131 respectively while, has only 3,300. However a proposal has been sent for recruiting at least 1,400 additional personnel.
