R.S. Puram Police station (B-2) credited another golden feather in the cap of Coimbatore City Police when it was ranked as the best police station in the country in the category of SMART Police Stations, an initiative by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
Station House Officer T. Jothi, inspector (law and order), received the award from Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the all India conference of Director Generals/Inspector Generals of Police held at BSF Academy Tekanpur in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
The Anna Nagar Police station is the only other station, which ranked fifth, selected from the State in an all-India exercise the Home Ministry conducted recently. Panjagutta police station in Telangana and Gudumba police station in Lucknow bagged second and third rank.
SMART Police (S-Sensitive and Strict; M-Modern with mobility; A- Alert and Accountable; R- Reliable and Responsive; T- Trained and Techno-savvy) concept was announced by Prime Minister at the the 49th annual conference Directors General/Inspectors General held in Guwahati in November, 2014.
Sources said following instructions from the State police headquarters, the Coimbatore City Police sent a file containing the initiatives it had taken in the past for effective and friendly policing. Based on the proposal a Home Ministry team visited the city and interacted with people who fell under the police jurisdiction limits.
Some of the parameters considered for the assessment include rate of crime detection, execution of warrants, recovery of properties, enforcement of local laws and special acts, preventive arrests and detention under Goondas Act.
Other suggested features of a SMART Police Stations as envisaged by the MHA are basic amenities for visitors, waiting area, toilets, drinking water, receptionist, rest room for constables including separate room for women constables, natural lighting and ventilation, solar lighting, energy saving features, CCTV, safe and secure armoury, record room, communication room for wireless, computers, automated kiosks for filing of complaints by public (with a back-end system for tracking follow up action).
