Click to play videoNew Delhi: The rising crime in the suburbs of our major cities has put a huge question mark on the policing system. Are they equipped to handle the pressures? The focus in Tuesday's story in CNN-IBN's special series, Sleepless in Suburbia, is on what seems to the be weakest links in our system - the police. Even as criminals in the suburbs are increasingly upwardly mobile, the police are barely able to keep pace. Read on...
A dilapitated police station, one Station House Office and ten policemen - this is the security available to the almost 3 lakh residents of Palam Vihar, Gurgaon. There is not a single computer in the police station and the constables struggle with paper work in a cramped reporting room.
Gurgaon Police Commissioner, Mahender Lal says, "Basically the policing system in Gurgaon used to be rural-based. But now, we are introducing the urban-based system whereby we have separate PCR units, separate crime units and with the help of this new system, we are remodeling our police system and we will be able to take care of crime and all kinds of citizens."
In Noida, the story is no different. Policemen from a rural background are culturally unprepared to understand the people they have to police.
In the Arushi murder case, the police bungled when interpreting the 14-year-old's emails. With little knowldege of slang English, the police interpreted her frank conversations with three boys as "immoral".
SSP Noida, R K Chaturvedi says, "Policemen who are coming from Basti and Faizabad get a culture shock when they come to Noida. The lifestyle of the people here is very different. We try to post our best men here."
The rising crime in the suburbs of India's major cities has put a huge question mark on the policing system and many are beginnning to think that the police is not really eqipped to handle the pressures of suburbia.
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