Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate to be split into multiple units?
The Karnataka government is learnt to be giving serious thought on splitting the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate into two or three city police commissionerates. This
The Karnataka government is learnt to be giving serious thought on splitting the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate into two or three city police commissionerates. This comes less than a year after the erstwhile Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was divided into five city corporations. Home Minister Priyank Kharge confirmed the development. “There was an earlier proposal to split the commissionerate, which was not acted upon. It again came up for discussion during the formation of GBA last year. We are studying the pros and cons of the issue and after a holistic assessment, we will put up a proposal before the chief minister. No decision has been taken yet.”. “BCP unwieldy” The BCP Commissionerate currently has a total of 186 police stations, including 115 law and order and 53 traffic police stations. As the city expands horizontally, keeping in tune with the 2007 experiment of expanding the civic limits from 225 sqkm to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) of 709 sqkm, urbanised areas have continuously been added to the BCP Commissionerate. Over the last two years, at least six stations have been added. To accommodate this, the number of law and order divisions in the city shot up from eight to eleven and traffic divisions from two to four. On top of this, there are at least 15 more law and order police stations in the adjoining Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru South district police units which are largely urbanised, but continue to be governed under rural police units.
Their addition eventually could make it unwieldy, a section argues. “Bengaluru Police Commissioner has a population of over 1.5 crore and an area much larger than the Greater Bengaluru Authority to oversee. He has nearly 30 IPS officers reporting to him. This is extremely unwieldy and no Commissioner is able to provide adequate focus to all areas. Oversight is key to effective policing,” a senior police official said. Another senior official said that ideally, the core city should be retained as the Bengaluru City Police, and the suburbs — including urbanised police stations in Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru South district units — should be included and reorganised into two more city commissionerates. Bengaluru City Police Law and Order Police Stations: 115 organised into 11 divisions Traffic Police Stations: 53 organised into 4 divisions Cyber Crime Police Stations: 9 Women Police Stations: 8 Central Crime Branch Police Station: 1 Total: 186 Recently added police stations Madanayakanahalli, Kumbalgodu, Hebbagodi, Avalahalli, Talaghattapura, Rajanakunte Police stations around Bengaluru with urban characteristics but still under district police units Nelamangala, Doddaballapur, Devanahalli, Vijayapura, Vishwanathapura, Hoskote, Sarjapura, Surya City, Attibele, Bidadi, Bannerghatta, Jigani, Anekal, Tavarekere, Kaggalipura “Unified command key” However, many senior police officers have argued that a unified command is key in policing, which works only with a clear chain of command. “Even if we take the model of five corporations in the city, there is a pan-city body called the GBA which has a chief commissioner and several special commissioners to integrate the functions of the five corporations.
The BriefWire