CP Delhi surprise visit: One duty officer, complainants made to wait for hours and a sleeping sentry

New Delhi: The new Delhi Police Commissioner has started cracking the whip after finding massive negligence in the way police stations are operating during the evening hours. In his late-night surprise check after taking charge, Commissioner Balaji Srivastava found complainants being made to wait for hours, absentee cops and sleeping sentry among other irregularities and instructed officials to make sure such negligence has consequences.

Highly placed sources in Delhi Police told Millennium Post that in one of the stations, the police chief stayed for almost 20 minutes but during this period, none of the supervisory officers or emergency officers of the police station came to the duty officer room. One inspector was found present at the police station.

"The whole police station was handled by duty officer on his own. When we called him and asked the officer about the functioning of ICMS, he was able to explain. It was also found that maintenance of record room was not up to the mark," sources said.

Meanwhile, the top cop visited another police station and found that the Station House Officer was not present and also the sentry deployed at the main gate was sleeping. "No officer had time to check or tell the sentry to wake up and do his duty," sources said. CP Delhi also interacted with the staff of the police station. "An inspector of that police station was not aware of the functioning of ICMS.

CP Delhi directed that refresher training for the functioning of ICMS should be organised for inspectors (ATOs), IOs and posters related to ICMS should be displayed in all police stations," sources said. ICMS, which was launched last year, helps the complainant to view the status of his complaint.

Meanwhile, CP Delhi also interacted with 8 to 10 complainants who were present inside the police station. They informed him (police chief) that they had come around 11 pm to the police station and even after two hours their complaints were not lodged or registered.

"They also informed the top cop that they tried to file their complaints online but were unable to do so," sources said. As per the police, the number of complaints directly received by Delhi Police is about 1.5 lakhs annually approximately, and the bulk of these complaints are being received at the police station level, by hand or by post, mail.

The top cop directed to conduct a focused awareness campaign regarding e filing of complaints and tutorials regarding procedures should be uploaded on YouTube.

In another police station, it was found that one police personnel was not well groom about lockup duty. The inspection was conducted on the intervening night of July 3 and 4, from 12 am to 4 am.