A long-pending demand of the State police force may soon see the light of day. The State Home Department has proposed three shifts of eight hours each for the police force, which has often complained of overwork, terming it a move that could enhance efficiency and accountability.
“It has been a long-pending demand of the police force for an eight-hour shift from the existing minimum 12 hours work. At present, there are around 1.08 lakh police personnel on board, with 23,000 existing vacancies,” Additional Director-General of Police (Recruitment ) Raghavendra Auradkar, who made the proposal, said. He also said that the number of vacancies increases every time a new initiative from the Home Department is implemented — such as exclusive units and battalions.
Implementing the three-shift plan would eliminate fatigue and ease work pressure to a great extent, Mr. Auradkar said.
City Police Commissioner T. Suneel Kumar recently issued a circular to all jurisdictional DCPs to submit a detailed report on the number of cases registered in the last three years as well as the staff strength of the police stations in their jurisdiction.
In the circular, Mr. Kumar stated the need to increase the number of police personnel by considering the population and create more posts which are necessary.
The city Police Commissioner told The Hindu that the idea of definite hours of work was to enhance the efficiency of policing and provide some respite to the overworked personnel.
“There are no definite hours for police personnel on duty as of now owing to a number of reasons; one of the main reasons is the skewed ratio between the existing strength and the sanctioned strength of the force,” Mr. Kumar said.
The three-shift model proposed to separate the crime staff from the law and order staff so that efficiency of detection and investigation would improve, he added.
However, with the force suffering from staff shortage, some police officials pointed out that the shift system would not work unless the numbers were augmented and the station workforce was restructured, a senior police officer said.
A senior police officer said the data collected from DCPs would be analysed and the staff working at the police stations would be restructured to make the shift system work.
There were many instances where in one police station the staff was more than what was required while the other police stations had to manage with a minimal force, the officer said.
“The three-shift system has been there in the traffic department since 2005: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and the graveyard shift. But unfortunately, the law and order police did not have that privilege, which is the need of the hour. This would increase productivity and reduce the workload, if implemented. But restructuring of the force is needed to implement the system effectively,” said M.A. Saleem, Additional Director-General of Police (Crime and Technical Services).
