Delhi: Police Control Room (PCR) may soon become an independent department of Delhi Police. Delhi Police officials are worried about the increase in response time of PCR vans.
It is learned that the new Police Commissioner Mr. Sanjay Arora IPS is personally monitoring the response time of the PCR teams currently attached to the police stations.
The Delhi Police’s PCR unit was integrated with the police stations in September last year in an attempt to improve its performance and enhance its capabilities at the police station level, which was aimed at increasing their efficiency and improving its response time but without adequate results.
A high-level committee of Delhi Police considered almost every aspect before taking the final decision to link the PCR unit with the area police station. Some loopholes and lack of coordination were identified as major deficiencies in the integration performance after PCR units.
According to police sources, it is mandatory for every PCR call to go to the spot along with a team of Investigating Officer (IO). At the spot, the PCR van should wait for the Investigating Officer (IO), till he records the statement of the caller. The PCR van should remain in place until the process starts or the problem is resolved. Then it goes back to the concerned police station and leaves to attend another PCR call.
A police official said the biggest loophole has emerged in poor implementation of the merger, considering that each police station in the national capital has five PCR vans in their dock. If a police station receives more than five PCR calls at a time, it automatically increases the response time to the additional calls. In that case it is not possible to use the PCR vans of the nearby police stations.
Absorption of Mobile Patrol Vans (MPVs) in the new system includes conducting beat-wise patrolling and attending to law and order issues in a single command of a police station or district. However, in the previous system, MPVs had their own patrol beats, base points and patrolling routes under the command of a central police control room, which covered a large area.
Consolidation of PCR’s jurisdiction and police stations has improved manpower and vehicle capacities. Under the new system, 800 PCR vehicles have been added to police stations. However, vehicle maintenance at police stations has become a major challenge, resulting in poor vehicle efficiency. So top police officials are thinking that the Police Control Room (PCR) should soon be converted into an independent department of the Delhi Police.
Our Citizen Reporter,
Venkata T Reddy
