Chennai City Police are yet to launch their official website, despite three attempts over as many years.
While their counterparts in Coimbatore are running an interactive site, the Chennai police force’s efforts in this direction have not borne fruit.
Lack of funds and the absence of a dedicated team for the initiative are said to be the reasons for the police force not being able to kickstart the website.
Sources with the City Police Commissionerate said the first step to start an official website was taken three years ago when a team, lead by the then deputy commissioner of Central Crime Branch (CCB), initiated work on the site along with a private website developer.
“The website took shape and even a trial run of the portal was conducted. It had photographs and information, including the history of the city police. But, the transfer of then commissioner J.K. Tripathy halted efforts to make the site public,” a senior officer said.
Police officials, who were in charge of the second attempt to develop the site, recalled that these efforts were stalled after the police department failed to settle bills of up to Rs. 20,000 with the developer who subsequently withheld the username and password for the portal that was almost ready to be launched.
The third attempt was initiated by Commissioner S. George in the run-up to the inauguration of the city police commissionerate on October 11, 2013. The plan was to ready the site so that it could be launched at the same time.
But the work on the website, spearheaded by a joint commissioner, is allegedly stalled and it is unclear when the website is likely to be launched
“We were told that work on the website has been postponed until further notice due to lack of funds. But a Facebook page of the city police and a Twitter handle have been unveiled recently,” added the officer.
