The Mumbai police, once touted to be next only to London’s Scotland Yard in their investigation skills, today find themselves tackling a high crime rate.
The Mumbai police, once touted to be next only to London’s Scotland Yard in their investigation skills, today find themselves tackling a high crime rate and are faced with low staff strength.
Resultant, the force, apart from being labelled as corrupt, also grapples with excessive stress. Police suicides have risen alarmingly in the last five years.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration), Hemant Karkare said the state and central governments are seized of the manpower problem and are doing their best to increase the strength of the force.
Presently, the city has strength of 41,914 policemen at various echelons, including the topmost post, for a population of over 12 million. With several of them on VIP duty and police bandobast at various locations and absenteeism, the rest are on duty for the tax-paying citizens.
“The current police population ration is 3:1000. In the next three years, we plan to increase it to at least 5:1000,” said Karkare.
Last year the state agreed to recruit 11,000 people in the police force in Maharashtra. “In 2006, we recruited 1889 men. This year we have already recruited 1292 men and the drive is still on,” said Karkare.
To a question whether this numerical increase will do any good to the force or the citizens, Karkare said: “As of now, the additional strength being provided to Mumbai police should meet the requirement for the next three years.”
The problem for the government, however, does not end with merely recruiting more policemen. It also has to provide housing, training and infrastructure facilities to them. The lack of any of these affects the performance of the police adversely. Their job is not becoming any easier.
With its huge migrant population and the cosmopolitan nature of the city, Mumbai has some crimes peculiar to it. That apart, new age criminals thrive in the city, thanks to cyber crime, white collar crimes and economic crimes.
Many policemen agree that because of the work overload — often working without breaks — tells on their physical and mental well being.
“In this scenario, we hardly have the motivation or the passion that is required to do our jobs,” says one.
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