Delhi Police pick up tricks from NYPD’s book to curb crime

Bratton focused on curbing street crimes which have the potential of being dismissed as petty. But such crimes go on to assume violent nature if not addressed properly.

street crime ranking high on the national capital’s list of concerns, the Delhi Police brass went back to the classroom to take a lesson or two from the New York City Police Department’s experiences.

Their teacher was the director of IIM Ahmedabad, Prof Ashish Nanda, who has in the past taught at Harvard Law School for seven years.

The class, organized under the ‘Leadership Programme’ at Academy for Smart Policing in Chanakyapuri, was the brainchild of the police commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, who wanted his officers to be exposed to experiments by the NYPD in the 1990s that helped curb street crimes.

“It offered the police department’s senior officers an opportunity to introspect and learn from NYPD’ experience on how to curb crimes in difficult circumstances,” Patnaik told HT.

Nanda particularly focused on the period between 1994 and 1996 when William Bratton was roped in to serve as the NYPD chief.

“The New York city was infested with crimes at that time. Bratton focused on curbing street crimes which have the potential of being dismissed as petty. But such petty crimes go on to assume violent nature if not addressed properly at an early stage,” said Dependra Pathak, Special CP, after attending the class.

To drive home this point, the professor took a few minutes to teach the officers about the Broken Windows Theory.

“The officers will have to use their management skills to crack down on smaller crimes such as public drinking and vandalism to prevent bigger crimes,” said another officer about the lessons the officers took home from the special learning session.

Since the classroom had officers ranging from the Police Commissioner, Amulya Patnaik, to district Deputy Commissioners of Police, Prof Nanda delved into examples from history to focus on leadership.

Calling upon the officers to take care of their subordinates, Nanda particularly focused on the experiences of polar explorer, Ernest Shackleton.

“The explorer’s life was mentioned to teach us how we should lead our men and women during our operations while ensuring their safety and well-being,” said the officer.

El Nino, a cyclical climate pattern, is linked to the warming of the Pacific water surface. A cooler Pacific means normal monsoon. Conversely, warmer oceans mean patchy rains. An El Nino-induced drought scorches crops and kills livestock.

The monsoon is critical for India’s farm-driven economy and its farmers, as nearly half of the country’s farmland lacks irrigation. The country received average monsoon rain last year, but the rainfall distribution was uneven, leaving parts of southern and western India parched. Backto-back droughts have ravaged crops in Maharashtra.

The weather office is due to issue its monsoon forecast this month, but India could emerge unscathed from the El Nino weather pattern, said KJ Ramesh, the IMD director general.

But private forecaster Skymet last week predicted a poor monsoon this year.

The metro network in Saint Petersburg announced it was shutting down entirely after evacuating all passengers.

The Moscow metro also tweeted that it was “taking additional security measures” as required by law in such situations. NAK said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that security was being stepped up at transportation hubs and crowded places across the country.

Saint Petersburg announced three days of mourning in the city while President Vladimir Putin, who was holding a meeting nearby in his official Strelna presidential palace, offered “condolences” to those hurt in the blast and to the loved ones of those killed.

Just hours after the blast, people began laying flowers by the Sennaya Square station.

“I was shocked,” said local resident Alexander Malikov. “I gathered my friends around and we came to put flowers here.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini wrote on Twitter she was following developments “together with all EU foreign ministers” gathered for a meeting in Luxembourg. “Our thoughts are with all the people of Russia,” she wrote.

Extremists have targeted Russia’s public transportation systems in the past.

“All EVMs sent to Bhind were used in Uttar Pradesh’s Govind Nagar during the assembly elections. How can you allow that? Also, we have heard that VVPAT machines from UP were brought to conduct the Rajouri Garden bypoll,” Kejriwal said.

He alleged that the commission has violated its own rules, as EVMs from an election can’t be reused for 45 days — a period during which a person can petition against the result, which would warrant an examination of the machines.

“People are asking whether they should even bother to vote if the EVMS could be tampered … municipal elections should be held using paper ballots. It should be postponed if time is required to do that,” he said.

The nominations for elections to the three municipal corporations ended on Monday.

The commission said the party has levelled “baseless observations and allegations”.

“VVPAT machines are not required by the law to be retained in a strong room for the purpose of election petition and are available for use. However, in the by-polls only VVPAT machines kept in reserve, and not used during the polls, have been redeployed,” the panel clarified in a statement.

The standby machines go through the same rigorous protocol and kept ready.

“Hence, the VVPATs sent to Bhind had the previous symbols loaded from Uttar Pradesh. This is a standard protocol and there was nothing amiss in this,” the commission said.

The old symbols for contesting candidates are erased only before the next polls.

“It was not done when a demonstration was made on March 31 in Bhind.”

The investigation into the Indian teenager’s death and subsequent incidents is ongoing.

The government condemned the “unacceptable” attack on some Nigerian nationals in Greater Noida and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had made a detailed statement in Parliament.

Authorities in Uttar Pradesh had arrested some suspects and taken steps to strengthen the security of Nigerian nationals. The external affairs ministry noted a report of an assault on a Kenyan national was withdrawn and the concerned national, whose tourist visa had expired, was returning to Kenya.

Enraged local residents in Greater Noida thrashed several Africans in a burst of fury following the death of a 17-year-old boy of a suspected drug overdose last month. Residents blamed the Africans of providing drugs to the teenager.

A video of the assault of an African man went viral on social media and sparked widespread outrage. Despite the government’s assertion that it has enforced strict security, some Africans have reported feeling insecure and threatened.