Mumbai fails to get nominated for smart police station competition

State govt nominates Pune's Hinjewadi police station and Nagpur's Sonegaon police station for the competition

The central government has come up with a competition, 'smart police station,' for police stations in India. Though Mumbai police is considered the second best in the world after Scotland Yard, Maharashtra has nominated two police stations, one from Pune city which is Hinjewadi police station, and the other from Nagpur city, Sonegaon police station, for the competition.

One of the nominated police stations, Sonegaon, Nagpur city

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced the concept of Smart Police, a force which is S-Sensitive and Strict; M-Modern with mobility; A- Alert and Accountable; R- Reliable and Responsive; T- Trained and Techno-savvy during the 49th Directors General/ Inspectors General Annual Conference at Guwahati in 2014. Based on this a press release was issued by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on smart policing. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to establish a model smart police station in each state.

Staff of Sonegaon police station exercise

The MHA will work with state governments to set up smart police stations during the next financial year. Efforts will also be made to involve the private sector and their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. The smart police station will become the foundation of smart policing.

The major features that have been stressed upon in the competition are police officers' behaviour, staff's behaviour, the rapport between citizens and the police, practices that were adopted to curb crime, the response time to reach a spot, the detection rate, paper less police station etc. Additional Director General of Police (Establishment) Rajendra Singh said, "There were also various parameters essential for a smart police station competition like technology, infrastructure, conviction rate etc. Based on these the two police stations were nominated." A team of officials from the MHA will visit the police stations in Maharashtra on November 25 to see them.

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