‘Rebuilding trust’ is my priority, says CP
Women’s safety, cyber crime, more CCTV cameras are on top of his agenda
MUMBAI: Amidst an array of visitors and a pile of files to clear, Mumbai Police Commissioner (CP) Vivek Phansalkar on Friday spoke to HT after completing five months on the job. The police chief admitted that he was facing a big challenge— that of rebuilding the purportedly tarnished image of the 50,000-strong police force.
When asked what his biggest challenge was after the tryst of two former CPS with law-enforcement agencies—sanjay Pandey’s arrest in a moneylaundering case and Param Bir Singh facing serious criminal charges—phansalkar said his main aim was to rebuild the trust between the force and the government on the one hand and the force and citizens on the other.
The first step towards achieving this, he said, was to undo several things from the past. The Nirbhaya project, which was discontinued, is one of the things that Phansalkar proposes to re-start. The CP has sent the proposal to the government and will soon float tenders of Rs 140 crore for forensic science and cybercrime equipment and tools, including vehicles, for the protection of women in the city. With a view to adopting advanced technology in policing to improve the quality of investigation into rape, other sexual offences and other crimes against women, the Mumbai police will receive advanced forensic kits, which include a 3-D scanner, biological evidence-collection equipment, fingerprint collection equipment and a rape kit. “A proposal has already been sent to the government,” said Phansalkar.
Another priority of the CP is augmenting the skills of officers in the cyber crime arena. “The deputy commissioner (cyber) has already completed two rounds of specialised training. We will now get experts in the field to train our officers firsthand,” he said.