Shankar Jiwal, who took over as Director General of Police and Head of Police Force, Tamil Nadu, more than two months ago, shares his thoughts on the technical initiatives for effective and predictive policing, in an interview with The Hindu. Excerpts:
What are the priorities of the Tamil Nadu police with you as the DGP?
Stringent action against rowdyism, ‘katta panchayat’ and other anti-social activities are part of our focus on maintaining law and order. There will be no compromise on the safety of women, children, senior citizens and the vulnerable sections. Instructions have been given to ensure prompt disposal of petitions received under Mudhalvanin Mugavari.
You are known for deploying technology in policing. Any new initiatives on the IT front?
Analysis of Internet Protocol Detail Record (IPDR) is a significant step towards monitoring the activities of hardcore and extremist elements who use Internet-enabled voice services instead of regular phone calls. The IPDR analysis, being done at the police headquarters, will soon be taken to the police station level. Facial Recognition Software to identify accused and missing persons, the National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) to resolve criminal cases based on the fingerprints of suspects at the scene of crime are some of the IT initiatives in policing. Predictive policing has been experimented in the Greater Chennai Police by hotspot analysis. This involves plotting geographical or location-wise occurrences of crimes under various categories like chain-snatching, house burglary and murders and deploying manpower accordingly. We will expand this.
Social media has emerged as a challenge to the police as it can spread a provocative message quickly. How well is your social media intelligence equipped?
We have created a state-of-the-art Social Media Centre in the headquarters for monitoring social media platforms. Any post that can harm peace is brought to the knowledge of superior officers immediately. Advanced software and tools for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) are used to watch trends and developments and to analyse the hashtag to identify viral messages, sentiments around the trending topics, top influencers, images, videos and opinions. We are in the process of procuring the ‘INNSIGHT’ tool to enhance the capability for monitoring developments in social media. Until August 24 this year, 1,993 cases were registered under the IT Act and 464 accused were arrested for posting inflammatory messages.
How prepared is the force in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election? Southern Tamil Nadu is sensitive...
We are fully prepared. Police officers are working to keep habitual offenders in check through preventive detentions. Murder cases in some southern districts are mostly due to sudden provocation or previous enmity. The number of murders has come down because of the sustained action against criminals. Senior police officers are coordinating with community leaders, village heads and others in bringing about an amicable solution to personal feuds among people of different castes or groups.
The image of the force suffered after some cases of alleged custodial torture in recent years...
The police have adopted zero tolerance towards custodial torture. Any allegation of police torture is taken seriously and prompt investigation/inquiry is done to find out the lapses. Firm action is being taken against erring police personnel. All the 1,578 police stations were equipped with CCTV cameras. The results are quite evident. The number of custodial death cases has drastically come down in recent years (2018-10, 2019-10, 2020-6, 2021-4, 2022-3 and 2023-nil).
Despite Tamil Nadu having good roads and healthcare facilities, thousands of people are killed in road accidents in the State...
The State stands second in the number of deaths caused by road accidents (Uttar Pradesh-21,792 and Tamil Nadu-15,384), according to the NCRB data for 2021. The major causes of fatal accidents are drunken-driving, over-speeding, especially youths racing on motorcycles, underage driving, the use of mobile phones while driving, vehicles parked on roadsides and poor vehicle condition. A total of 1,787 black spots have been identified where safety measures, including rectification of design defects, are being taken. Till July this year, there is a reduction of fatal accidents by 5.47% on a year-on-year basis (2022-23).
Andhra Pradesh still remains a major source of ganja?
Yes, Andhra Pradesh remains a major source of ganja for Tamil Nadu. Also, ganja is supplied to Sri Lanka through our State. There have been significant seizures of ganja, most of which came from Andhra Pradesh. At present, ganja cultivation in Tamil Nadu is almost nil. The local police and the EB-CID have made special efforts to curtail the supply from Andhra Pradesh and formed special teams to catch the main suppliers operating from that State. At the Regional Director-Generals of Police Coordination Conference held recently in Bengaluru, the neighbouring States have been requested to help curtail ganja ingress into Tamil Nadu.
What is your take on intrusion of Sri Lankan arms- and drugs- smugglers and Maoist regrouping attempts at the tri-junction?
In the last one year, the Coastal Security Group has seized 182 kg of ganja and other drugs meant for smuggling to Sri Lanka. The endeavour to educate fishermen on the dangers of ingress on the coastal front continues. As for the inter-State activities of Maoists, the STF, Tamil Nadu, continues to collaborate with the Thunderbolts of the Kerala police and the Anti-Naxal Force of Karnataka. There have been no Maoist sighting on Tamil Nadu soil, an indication of the efficiency of our STF. For the first time, the DGPs of the three States have decided to meet in the tri-junction forest area to chalk out strategies to wipe out the Maoist activities.
CCTV cameras at public places have not only deterred criminals but also helped in detecting crimes. What is the progress of CCTV projects in cities?
Installation of CCTV cameras covering areas of public gathering is one of the top priorities for us. As of now, more than 3.6 lakh CCTV cameras have been installed at public places all over the State. They include contributions from private persons and government agencies. CCTV cameras at public places in major cities is critical for crime prevention and detection. In Chennai city in particular, the cameras installed under Safe City Project are having analytical capability of spotting trouble and also ‘SOS Signal detection’.
How is the performance of investigators in expeditious charge-sheeting and achieving conviction in grave crimes?
History-sheets are opened for habitual offenders involved in grave crimes, like murder, murder for gain, dacoity, robbery and burglary. These offenders are checked regularly in their known locations. When they are found missing or absconding without valid reasons, special teams are tasked with tracing them to find out whether they are indulging in criminal activities, and stringent action is being taken. Instructions have been issued to separate the investigation work from the law and order duties and create a separate investigation wing at the police stations. Senior officers are regularly reviewing cases of grave crimes pending trial to improve the conviction rate. As of now, 38 police stations have dedicated investigation wings and their staff members are not utilised for ‘bandobust’ duties or other routines. This has helped to improve the quality of investigation.
