With 3,814 posts vacant, Bengaluru police remains understaffed

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Despite the noticeable shortage of staff in the city police department and the effect it has on working personnel, hardly anything is being done to fill the vacancies with over 3,814 posts remaining vacant for the past several years.

The city’s rising crime graph, spiralling population and traffic directly point to the mismatch in the police-to-public ratio; the government seems to have failed to increase the numbers, because of reasons best known to the authorities.

The 3,814 vacancies, include crucial one s like those of 1,825 police constables (PCs) and 347 police sub -inspectors (PSIs); the shortage has led to various challenges in maintaining law and order and ensuring public safety.

Even the sanctioned police strength is not enough for the city’s current population of 14 million. According to the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), 170 civil police are required per 1 lakh population, suggesting that 21,720 personnel are required to police the city.

But the state capital currently has only 15,475 policemen and officers, including DCPs and ACPs of Law and Order, Traffic and Special Forces combined, which exposes the substantial gap between the actual staff strength and the ideal numbers. Ramesh ST, retired DG&IGP, said, "The police force is a human resource-intensive organisation. W hen technolog y is upgraded, work becomes more effective and efficiency improves, but numbers are necessary. For example, while patrol vehicles like Hoysala and Cheetahs are increasing, there is a need for more police personnel to operate them," he said.

For several years, the BJP and then the current Congress government in Karnataka had promised to upgrade and strengthen the department by adding more police personnel in various posts. However so far very little has been done towards this and the problem remains unresolved.

The police department must have sent many proposals to the government to increase the sanctioned police strength as crime, population, industrial and student activities, and traffic are increasing every day. The officials allege that the government is slow in aug menting police strength because of budgetary constraints.