Visakhapatnam police introduce community policing with auto drivers

The Visakhapatnam City Police, on Tuesday, introduced community policing with auto drivers in a bid to prevent and detect crime and control illegal activities in the city. The initiative, touted to be cost-effective, aims at forging a partnership between the police and the community with the co-operation of auto drivers to address crimes.

Visakhapatnam has been witnessing frequent occurrences of crimes in recent times, especially during the nights. It has been identified that most of the offences, including robbery, pick-pocketing, bag cutting, snatching, kidnapping smuggling, and transport of stolen property, among others, took place by using auto or with the connivance of auto drivers.

The police stated that 70% the auto drivers in Visakhapatnam city are unorganised and only 30% are affiliated with unions/associations. Informing that night auto services are being run mostly by those in the unorganised category, the police noted the majority of the issues have been arising due to unorganised auto drivers,

“To control the offences (property and law & order related) committed by some of the auto drivers and to make them more responsible towards the public, the police have decided to include them under the initiative of community policing. The move would also result in the accumulation of data in aiding the prevention and detection of crimes,” the police said.

Objectives of community policing with auto drivers include:

Prevention and detection of crime, controlling illegal activities in the city and thereby provide safety and security to the lives and properties of citizens.
To verify the criminal antecedents of all auto drivers and keep a close watch over those having a criminal record.
Creation of an Auto Information Portal to have access to auto drivers and their associations/unions.
To affiliate unorganised auto drivers to specific unions/associations to keep a tab over their activities.
To conduct awareness meetings with auto drivers and trade unions about the concept of community policing with auto drivers.
Create a good reputation for auto drivers in society and help the public to choose autos as a safe mode of transport and also assist in improving their financial status.

The concept of ‘community policing with auto drivers’ has been visualised and conceptualised under the aegis of Maneesh Kumar Sinha (IPS), Commissioner of Police, Visakhapatnam, a press release stated. Ch Simhadri Naidu, Inspector of Police, East sub-division Crimes, Visakhapatnam city, has been appointed as Nodal Officer to bring the initiative into effect, under the supervision and guidance of V Suresh Babu, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crimes, Visakhapatnam city.