When the posters of politicians vie for people’s attention everywhere, the Adyar police are using the same to create awareness among the public, especially the young techies, about mobile phone snatching to reduce such incidents.
Notices on the methods used by mobile phone snatchers have been stuck at bus stands and on the walls of streets and roads to alert the people who talk on their phones while walking or sitting in one place.
M.Rohit Nathan, Deputy Commissioner of Police, told The Hindu , “Here we have more people working in IT companies on Old Mahabalipuram Road. The youngsters use mobile phone for messaging and call while they are walking on the road thinking that they are saving time. Utilising such occasions, the culprits strike the walkers on street and rob them of their mobile phones. After the awareness campaign, the cases of mobile snatching reduced substantially.”
V.Srinivasan, Assistant Commissioner of Police, said, “We detected almost 90% cases of snatching mobile phones. But the greater awareness is needed among the public about the incidents in order to be vigilant. Initially, we created awareness through speakers fitted on patrolling jeeps but none bothered to listen. Some of them were annoyed over this. Then we introduced cost-effective method — sticking notices which are visible to the public. Notices explaining different modus operandi of the culprits were displayed in every street and road from SRP tools and Chemmanchery.”
