The Coimbatore City Police on Monday appointed 172 of its police personnel as Sectoral City Police Officers (SCPO) in its jurisdiction, who will work closely with the public.
City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan inaugurated the initiative in the presence of Deputy Commissioners G. Stalin (Law & Order) and E.S. Uma (Crime). After launching the initiative, Mr. Sharan gave instructions to the SCPOs regarding their duties and responsibilities.
Mr. Stalin said the SCPOs would work closely with the public in the locality assigned to them and collect early intelligence on various issues and happenings.
He said 43 sectors were identified within the limits of the 15 police stations in the city. Each sector had four SCPOs and two of them would be on duty at a time. The four officers would work in two shifts in a sector.
The SCPOs for a sector would start a WhatsApp group that would have representatives of people living in the locality irrespective of their profession, religion or political allegiance as its members.
Members of the WhatsApp group could share information on various happenings including law and order issues or crime. If a member had inhibitions to post specific information on the group, she or he could call the SCPOs concerned to give information and the informant’s whereabouts would be kept confidential. The officers had been instructed to maintain good rapport with the public.
