The city is safe and will be safe, asserted City Commissioner of Police B Shivadhar Reddy.
Addressing the media at Meet the Press organised by the Vizag Journalists Forum here on Saturday, he said that he would focus on proactive policing.
Awareness drive
The city police would be taking up traffic rule awareness drive for people of all ages, starting from school level, to ensure fewer road accidents. There would be increased patrolling by police teams both in the night and the day for crime prevention.
Noting that a lot had been done by his predecessors to reduce crime and also road accidents, he said that he would carry it forward and improve them. The city police would soon have a traffic police control room for better coordination and policing, the city police chief said.
White collar crimes
The police had been instructed to ensure rapid response and not to discriminate between the complainants of different strata of society. The police personnel had been directed to encourage the complainants to lodge complaints. Noting the increase in number of complaints of white collar crimes, he said that was not an indication of sudden spurt in crime but only a reflection of the growing confidence of the people in the police that had led them to report the crime rather than suffer in silence.
He advised the general public not to get carried away by unrealistic promises of very high returns made by finance companies. The city police had been able to effect arrests in two cases in the last three months and investigation was on in the third case, he explained.
In the case of finance companies the police have to follow a lengthy legal procedure which is likely to take more than six months, he explained and urged the Press and the people to be patient.
Manpower shortage
Conceding that the police force was strained due to shortage of manpower, he said the ongoing recruitment would ease the workload.
VJF president Gantla Srinubabu and secretary S Durga Rao, mediapersons from a number of publications and television channels were present.
