The Chennai city police have started enumerating criminals and crime hotspots in an effort to curb offences and ensure that patrolling is rationalised across the city.
The police have identified a total of 9,082 accused persons in their 12 districts. They have been classified into two categories — ‘rowdies’ who could cause law and order problems, and property offenders. The first category includes history sheeters, murder accused, ganja sellers and criminals that the Organised Crime Intelligence Unit (OCIU) is looking for. Property offenders include those involved in robbery, chain snatching, mobile snatching and attention-diversion crimes.
A senior officer said that while enumeration is a routine procedure, this time, the details have been cross-verified with the place of offence and the area of domicile of the suspect.
The list shows the north zone, comprising Flower Bazaar, Washermenpet and Madhavaram police districts, as having the highest number of ‘rowdies’ at 2,057, and west zone, consisting of Pulianthope, Ambattur and Anna Nagar districts, topping the list of property offenders at 2,015.
The police officer said the list comprising history sheeters and property offenders would be provided to local police stations of the 12 districts for further action. Criminals or gangs usually live in one place and engage in crimes in another area. The enumeration process would enable better coordination between police stations.
The local police stations would weed out the names of persons already in custody, including those detained under the Goondas Act and create a list of offenders who are out of prison. This list would be provided to beat officers. He said the patrol officers would maintain a daily record of these persons and in case they fall back to any criminal activities, they would be reported for suspension of the ‘good behaviour bond’ by which they are released.
Additional patrols
The Joint Police Commissioner of the south zone had instructed the Deputy Commissioners of Police of the three districts under the zone to generate a hotspot analysis of routine property offences and mount additional patrols in these areas.
A senior police officer said that in the T. Nagar district, for instance, patrolling would be strengthened in Postal Colony and Manthope in Ashok Nagar, Natesan Nagar in Virugambakkam and the T. Nagar bus stand in Mambalam. Similarly, areas coming coming under the Mount district which have been identified as hotspots of property offences are: Peerkankaranai and Medavakkam in Pallikaranai, Nanmangalam and Mudichur Road in Selaiyur and Anakaputhur and Tiruneermalai in Sankar Nagar. In Adyar district, police teams will monitor Rajiv Gandhi Salai to prevent snatching of mobile phones and surveillance would be carried out in Kannagi Nagar and Kallukuttai.
