In 2016, the Delhi Police saw several changes in its ranks and priorities — primarily brought about by the change in guard.
While former Delhi Police Commissioner B. S. Bassi emphasised free registration of FIRs and digitisation, his successor Alok Kumar Verma, a 1979-batch IPS officer, has made it clear that his focus was going to be on ground-level policing and beat-level vigilance.
Since February, which is when Mr. Verma took over, no new mobile app has been announced.
In one rare, or rather solitary and informal media interactive session, he responded to a question by merely asserting that digitisation was a continuous process. Digitisation aside, Mr. Verma is credited with rewarding the constabulary by clearing many overdue promotions.
Promotions and reshuffles
At a scale unheard of in recent times, the Delhi Police promoted over 4,000 of its junior-rank personnel, from constables to inspectors, in 2016. Some promotions were overdue for decades.
In a major reshuffle in June, 54 Station House Officers were transferred. The exercise was seen as just another sign of Mr. Verma opting to march ahead with
the people he trusted. Some saw it as his attempt to do away with the Mr. Bassi’s legacy.
New order
With administrative convenience in mind, the responsibility of law and order duties in the city was entrusted to two senior police officer, each heading a zone, a departure from the established trend of one Special Commissioner (Law and Order) in charge of all ranges and districts.
New sub-divisions
Another major announcement was the creation of two new districts and seven new sub-divisions to distribute manpower more evenly.
Officers said the decision to have 13 districts and 47 sub-divisions, instead of 11 and 40 the city has currently, was made to deal with the ever increasing number of cases being filed in police stations. Data shows that each district registers 15,000 to 18,000 FIRs annually.
Also, a high-power committee set up to look into manpower submitted that the force needed to induct 54,000 more police personnel. A proposal was been sent to the Union Home Ministry in October.
In 2016, the force’s bid to have a cosmopolitan face took the recruitment cell beyond the Northeast, from where 450 were recruited last year. This year, the Delhi Police visited all the States in search of candidates, yielding nearly 15 lakh applications to fill up 4,000 posts.
