The Ernakulam Rural police are set to scale up public interaction, with that being one of the priority areas of Vivek Kumar who assumed charged as District Police Chief earlier this week.
In his maiden interaction with the media at the District Police Headquarters in Aluva on Thursday, Mr. Kumar shared his priorities. He said he would take cue from his predecessor K. Karthik and work to improve on the public interaction programme ‘Drishti’.
“There will be increased interactions between the police, school and college students, and managements of educational institutions. Better interaction with the student community and youngsters in general will facilitate enforcement and intelligence gathering, especially in cases registered under the POCSO [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] Act and NDPS [Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances] Act,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said the crackdown on drugs remained a work in progress, with the Rural police having assembled a good team. “We are hopeful of more recoveries in the future,” he added.
He was also determined to strengthen action against goonda activities through initiatives like Operation Dark Hunt whereby miscreants consistently breaking the law were either expelled from the rural limits or arrested invoking the Kerala Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act, and the cancellation of bail of those engaged in criminal activities during the bail period. “Such initiatives have helped bring down goonda activities. We will work out more such proposals,” said Mr. Kumar.
Technical expertise
He said steps would also be taken to strengthen the technical expertise of the Rural police, with technology being increasingly used by criminal elements, especially in cases under the NDPS Act.
Other priorities
The officer said the Rural police remained geared up to meet the challenges of potential flood-like situations. “We will work in coordination with the district administration, NDRF [National Disaster Response Force], and Fire and Rescue Services. Our focus, however, will be more on traffic regulations and diversions to avoid accidents and rushing the injured to health care facilities,” he said.
Having served as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Kalpetta and Alappuzha, this is Mr. Kumar’s first independent posting.
Published - July 14, 2022 07:52 pm IST
