Booster Patrol pays dividends

Sharp dip in number of chain-snatching cases over past year

The introduction of a mobile patrol exclusively to tackle chain-snatchers appears to be paying off for the City police, with an analysis of the city’s crime graph over the past one year showing a sharp fall in the number of chain-snatching cases.

The analysis, done by the City police on the direction of City Commissioner of Police H. Venkatesh, shows that the number of chain-snatchings reported from January to April 2014 was 33, while this year till April 30, only nine such cases were reported. Similarly, from June 2013 to April 2014, 75 cases were reported, while from June 2014 to April 2015, only 55 were reported.

This, Mr. Venkatesh said, was proof that the presence of a force like the Booster Patrol was acting as a deterrent to criminals. The Booster Patrol, in fact, had given hot chase to several chain-snatching gangs, tasting success on a couple of occasions. The arrest of Shiju of Neyyattinkara on June 4, after a long-winding chase beginning from near Kovalam and ending near Karumam and which had the Booster bikes playing a major role, was one such.

“The response time, once we are alerted, has been minimised to around 10 minutes. But if we are alerted late, there is delay since the gangs can get away quite fast. The Boosters have been quite effective in most cases where we were alerted quickly,” the Commissioner said.

The analysis, he said, also showed that the number of cases in connection with harassment of women, categorised as ‘eve-teasing’ cases in police records, too had come down. There were 39 such cases till June 2014, while from July to December 2014, the number had come down to 15, and this year till April 30, no cases had been reported, he said.

The launch of Fem Patrol and efforts to energise helplines such as 1091 and 9995399953 were helping in this regard, Mr. Venkatesh said. The i-Safe mobile application and launch of self-defence (Krav Maga) classes too were playing a role.

However, there were a few constraints that were hampering further attempts to bring down crime in the city. These included a severe shortage of manpower, including drivers, in all police stations; scarcity of vehicles; and insufficiency of space in crucial police stations such as Museum, Thampanoor, Sreekaryam, and Karamana, to mention a few.