Hyderabad police to get image make-over

Hyderabad : If Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao has his way, the Hyderabad and Cyberabad police will soon get an image make-over, with Khaki dress being replaced by blue uniform. They will turn up smart.

According to official sources, the Telangana Chief Minister is keen that the policing in the city should be improved and made on par with international standards. He issued these directions to the police during a review meeting he held with Home Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy and Director General of Police Anurag Sharma on Saturday.

The Chief Minister said it was time that the city police discarded the age-old Khaki uniform and go for blue uniform. The meeting discussed the measures to modernize the city police.

'The police system should be modernized to the level of New York police standards,' the Chief Minister said and ordered the officials to change the dress code of the police personnel. He asked the officials to develop world class policing in the Greater Hyderabad limits.

Later, talking to the media, the Home Minister said that ensuring safety for women would be the top priority of the government. He said that the State government has also decided to reorganize and modernize the policing in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits in Hyderabad and Cyberabad.

He said that Hyderabad would be brought under electronic surveillance and as part of the plan the footage recorded by the CCTV cameras in the GHMC limits would be stored in the yet to be constructed World Class Control Room at Banjara Hills.

As part of the proposed plan, every police station in city would be provided with high speed internet facility to facilitate better communication among the police stations.

It was decided to buy as many as 1,600 Toyota Innova cars and 1,600 motorcycles for patrolling as part of the new policing plan. The new vehicles would have inbuilt GPRS and GPS systems to improve the mobility, he said.

He said that a laptop would be fixed in every police vehicle so that the staff can record the scene of crime and upload it immediately.

He said that by making the city electronically supervised, police can reach the scene of offense within shortest possible time and collect necessary clues with the help of CCTV footage, which would help in identifying the criminals soon and also reduces the investigation time.