A STUDY INTO THE NEW BEAT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED

BY KARNATAKA STATE POLICE

K ARNATA KA STATE P O L I CE

Industry Guide: Mr. C H Pratap Reddy, IPS, Secretary to Government PCAS, Home Department

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Post Graduate Programme in Management at

TAPMI, Manipal by:

Name: Renjit Thomas

Roll No: 13440

Batch: 2013-15

Date:18/06/2014

M I P – S U M M E R P R O J E C T R E P O R T

T A P M I , M A N I P A L , K A R N A T A K A - 5 7 6 1 0 4

I

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regard towards

Mr.C.H Pratap Reddy (Secretary, Home Dept. Government of Karnataka) and Dr.

Boralingaiah M.B (Superintendentof Police, Udupi) without whose support this project

would never have been, and who extended their insights at all critical junctures of this

project.

I also take this opportunity to thank all the faculty members of TAPMI for extending

their support for the project and especially Prof.Ajith Kumar, for his valuable insights and

constant support that was a source of motivation for my thought process while planning

the methodology for this project.I would also like to thank Prof. Sreekanth P for his

invaluable suggestions and for accompanying us for various meetings.

I am grateful to Mr.Annamalai Kuppusamy, IPS and Ms.Radhika, IPS for their

cooperation and enthusiasm towardsthe project and for their effort in organizing

meetings with the public and implementing some of the recommendations in the due

course of the project.

I am obliged towards all police staff who supported and cooperated with the project.I

would like to mention the followingofficials whose efforts played a key role in shaping this

project.

Mr. Prabhudev Mane (DSP, Udupi)

Mr.Arun Nayak (CPI, Brahmavar)

Mr. Shivanand (Constable, DPO)

II

ABBREVIATIONS

ADGP- Additional Director General of Police

DGP- Director General of Police

DIG- Deputy Inspector General of Police

DySP/DSP- Deputy Superintendent of Police

IGP- Inspector General of Police

KSP- Karnataka State Police

SP- Superintendent of Police

Dept.-Department

III

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A STUDY INTO THE NEW BEAT SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED BY KARNATAKA

STATE POLICE

Karnataka State Police

Renjit Thomas

18/6/2014

Karnataka State Police (KSP) is the police force of the state of Karnataka in India

which enacts the role of prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public

order. Beat system was implemented as part of building relationships and encouraging

involvement of the society into the system.Karnataka State Police launched a new

format termed The New Beat System in the year 2009, to upgrade the existing system of

community policing to the next level. Community policing, recognizing that police rarely

can solve public safety problems alone, encourages interactive partnerships with

relevant stakeholders. The aim of this initiative has been to increase public participation

and thus, ensure better collaboration from the public.

The objective of this project is to evaluate the New Beat System and spot pain areas

which can be resolved with enough attention to detail. Each Police station is divided into

smaller areas called, Beats. Police Offers named, Beat Officers are allotted the

responsibility of each Beat. The Beat officers function as the information channel

between police station and the community.

An effective system will ensure better cooperation from the public and thus better flow of

information, both of which are critical for the longevity of this program which is initiated

for the benefit of the community. Analysis unearthed findings which helped in creating

better recommendations that will increase the effectiveness of this program.

Methodology that has been used for this project is Qualitative research, since

Exploration was necessary for understanding the nuances of the system. Interviews

were conducted for better understanding of the system from stakeholder’s perspective.

Important factors that surfaced in the analysis of the data collected via the qualitative

methods were; Lack of training for the police personals, excess duty time, Lack of clarity

on the mode of transportation to respective beats. The interviews were conducted with

IV

police beat constables. Analysis of the data collected also brought out a hidden pain

point that the Beat constables frequently face; this being the habits of common man to

inquire the Police information regarding problems which were not in the purview of the

Police Department such as, problems with electricity department and public works

department to name a few .Interviews and discussion conducted with the Public brought

to light the importance of Age Group Factor of the community, youngsters were rarely

involved with the system. Other than the direct contacts of beat officers, the greater

proportion of the public were not aware that such a program existed. These facts led to

the following understanding,

Firstly the diminished awareness of the Beat System affected the core idea behind

Community Policing. Secondly, the Community was adapted to the non-responsive

norms of the system which was a pain area for both the Public and the Department.

Lastly, every age group of the community needed to be adequately represented in the

Community Policing which will help the Beat System succeed.

The identification of the pain points led to the suggestion and subsequent

implementation of the following recommendations:

Brainstorming sessions Youngsters and the Youth who play an important and

large part in the Community to understand how the System can be

comprehensive.

Setting up complaint boxes in colleges so that youngsters will get an opportunity

to pass on information to police.

Community governance meetings in which other Departments are present to take

the complaints of the public directly.

Regular brainstorming sessions with the Public in attendance to address

common issues

Periodic Beat review meetings with beat officers and various groups of the

community ware an absolute necessity to make sure the Program was heading

the right direction.

The Recommendations were made within the purview of the internship and

implementation of the same were initiated subsequently.

V

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ....................................... I

ABBREVIATIONS ............................................... II

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................. III

INTRODUCTION ................................................ 1

OBJECTIVE ........................................................ 3

SCOPE ................................................................ 4

METHODOLOGY ............................................... 5

ANALYSIS ........................................................... 7

CONCLUSIONS ................................................ 11

RECOMMENDATIONS .................................... 13

LIMITATIONS .................................................... 19

APPENDIX ........................................................ 20

REFERENCES.................................................. 26

1

INTRODUCTION

Karnataka State Police is the Law Enforcement body of the state of Karnataka in India.

It is responsible for the maintenance of law and order, internal security protection of life

and property and redressal for citizen’s grievances within the state of Karnataka. This

Department directly deal with the community and hence satisfaction of the general public

in its services and functioning is of great importance to Karnataka State Police.

Karnataka is divided roughly into six Police ranges which are Northern, North-eastern,

Eastern, Western, Central and Southern respectively.

These ranges are divided into sub-ranges and then again, into circles further. The Head

of Karnataka State Police who commands all the force in the state are the Director-

General and the Inspector-General of Police. They are assisted by the Assistant Deputy

Generals of police (ADGP’s) at the State level, Inspector General of Police (IG’s) at the

Range level and the Superintendents of Police at the District levels (SI’s).

On the whole within the state of Karnataka the total police personnel amounts to around

65,000 belonging to different ranks such as Police Inspector (PI), Sub Inspector (SI) ,

Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI), Head Constables (HC) and Police Constables (PC). It has

been statistically proven that the ratio of policeman to general public population in

Karnataka at any given time is around 1:802. This is greater than the national average of

1:771 persons.

The total population of the Karnataka state being 53 million, the number of cases

registered is around 1, 60,000 by year 2012-2013 which constitutes a little more than 2.5

percent of the total registered cases in the country. This proves that the Police

Department is an integral part of the community and works at making sure that the order

is maintained in society.

But the treatment and involvement of the complainant and the community will be known

only to those who are directly involved with the police since these are not recorded or

measured in any systematic sense, yet Police force has the unique and important task of

being able to punish those who breach law and order. But as is with any organization,

the incidents of misuse of power committed by a few individuals have been blown out of

2

proportion, thereby giving the entire organization a distasteful colour. This is a handicap

for the Police Department since, to take forward their responsibility to fruition the

commitment and the trust of the public is also very important. This theory is called

Community Policing.

Community Policing in its essence promotes a healthy relationship and involvement

between the community and the policing authorities that have the responsibility of

maintaining order within it.

Community Policing will succeed only if all the segments of the community are involved

in the policing methods along with the police department. This way all of the

communities’ problems can be swiftly identified and dealt without hassles. One of the

major methods of introducing community policing is the Beat System.

The beat system was implemented by KSP to involve the community in policing, thereby

ensuring an information channel between Dept. and the community it serves.Each

station is subdivided into groups and are allocated beat areas. The selected members

from the public are made part of the system. The role of these members are to act as a

points of information collection from others in the society .This way the public will take

part in the protection of its own community and build good relationship and rapport with

the police department. I was assigned the project to better the New Beat System in the

implemented in the year 2009. Thereby, promoting better ways to implement the Beat

System and bringing the community closer to the law and Order Department.

3

OBJECTIVE

To study and understand the New Beat System implemented by KSP,in the year 2009.

To understand the public perception about the New Beat System.

To understand the perception of the police personnel who are involved in beat system.

To provide suggestions and recommendations to make the system more inclusive and thereby increasing its effectiveness.

4

SCOPE

The study was performed mainly in Brahmavar station and Karkala station belonging to

Udupi district in western range, under the supervision of Superintendent of police. For

measuring the perception of police personnel and to ensure maximum width indata

collection, other police stations coming under Udupi district were also approached. The

public perception was entirely measured through interaction with public under

Brahmavar and Karkala station territories. The Night beat is not considered as it more

resembled night patrolling.

5

METHODOLOGY

The project aimed to study the perception of public and police personnel about the new

beat system. For achieving this, qualitative research was considered the best option.

Public had inhibitions when approached with a structured set of questionnaire and

hence, In-Depth interviews were used. Police personnel also tend to be more open when

they were involved in free discussion. Therefore, interviews were taken with Dept.

personnel as well.

Based on the timeline in which it was performed, the events and analysis can be divided

into phases.

Phase 1

The various stations under western range were visited to understand the functioning of

the department. Karkala, Brahmavar, kaup, Udupi townstations were some of the

stations that werevisited and observed. The procedure followed for New beat system

was observed during these visits. Interviews with S.P Boralingaiah, Ms.Radhika

IPS,Mr.Anamalai kuppusamy,IPS helped me gain a holistic picture of the system, and

the targets it had to meet.

Phase 2

Interviews were conducted with police personnel who perform Beat activity. The main

focus was to understand their perspective about the system and to understand what

problems are being faced by the field officers. These problems were significant as it

could render the system ineffective in the long run. This phase included interviews with

public who were directly involved in the beat activity and also with those who weren’t

involved in the system. Participatingin day beats helped in meeting public who were

direct contact point of Beat police.

6

Phase 3

This phase involved analysis of the data collected from the interviews. Secondary

research was conducted to gain insights about similar programs implemented by Police

Depts. of other states in India. The main focus of this research was to find solutions to

the problems, if any, identified in Phase 2.Other programs were analyzed also for their

compatibility with the situation prevalent in Karnataka State.

7

ANALYSIS

Community policing has been an integral part of Policing from a very long period. The

British also had this this integrated into police force during the colonial era. Community

policing was aimed to develop a channel of information between the police and the

community that they serve.

Karnataka state police had a beat police system which aimed at maintaining this channel

of information. But somewhere down the line, effectiveness of the system was reduced

and system was not reaping benefits as expected. The constabulary consisting of 80%

of the work force was not able to bring in any effective information from the public. The

workforce allocation to beat was inconsistent, hence beat officers were not able to

maintain a good rapport with their community. To rectify these bottlenecks and upgrade

the system to serve the changing social context, new beat system was enforced in

2009[Circular attached in appendix].The main changes that were brought into effect

were

The police station was divided into groups based on the number of beats, each

group headed by a S.I or a Head Constable.

In each beat about 50 members from selected from the community falling under

that particular beat. Respected members of the society should be selected to be

the beat members.

A beat book to be maintained including all the details about the beat like beat

member details, their contact numbers, the rowdy list, ex-convicts etc.

The constables assigned to beat duty are required to approach the Beat members from

their respective beat areas and gather information from them. The information thus

collected is passed on to the superior.

The new beat system has been in operation from the year 2009.The evaluation of the

system hasnot been performed. So to gain information about the working of the system

detailed interviews were conducted with Mr.Annamalai Kuppusamy, IPS and

Ms.Radhika, IPS.

8

The interview included questions about the system, how it functions in the real world, the

goals that are to be achieved by this system. The interviews revealed that system was

not performing as expected and that the information flow was not consistent. The

findings were:

The public was not showing enough interest in being part of the system.

The manpower was not adequate to run the system as is mentioned in the

circular.

Beat review meetings were not conducted at regular intervals with field officers.

Other activities like VIP escort, providing security during functions were

absorbing manpower from Beat system, making it a second priority.

The new beat system was becoming a one sided initiative undertaken by Police

Dept. with minimum interest from the community

The interview with the top officials revealed the fact that there was scope for

improvement in the system. The phase 1 of the project thus ended with the conclusion

that the system is becoming stagnant, hence there is a huge scope of improvement to

make it more inclusive.

The next phase of the project involved detailed interview with the beat field officers.

Police constables are given the responsibility of collecting information from the public.

They are the interface between Police Dept. and the community. Gathering their

perspective was of significance because it could pinpoint the defects rendering the

system ineffective. Brahmavar station was selected for conducting detailed interviews

with Constables.

The following are the findings from interviewing Police Constables:

The beats are further divided into gram panchayats. 1 or 2 gram panchayats are

allotted to each constables depending on Geography.

Police constable goes into their assigned beat territory once a week to meet the

selected community beat representatives.

9

The people other than the selected beat representative have a fear while

interacting with the Police Constables when they are in Uniform. But being in

uniform helps police personnel to get involved in minor disputes and settle them

while on beat.

In the earlier beat system, people used to volunteer for getting involved in the

beat system. Now the selection process is performed by the Dept. itself.

Citizens worry about the level of secrecy of the informant. This shows

communities lack of trust in passing sensitive information to the Dept.

Transfer of beat constables at short interval affects their chance of building a

rapport with their respective beats. This is one of the factors of trust deficit of the

society towards Dept.

A newly appointed/ transferred Constable takes 2-3 months in getting acquainted

with the Beat locality allotted to him. A proper briefing by the predecessor is

lacking.

Beat officers are assigned additional tasks which increases their workload and

results in diminishing attention towards their respective beat area.

People try to fetch information about other Depts. from their respective beat

officers. The problems related to Electricity Board, Public Works Dept. were all

put across at the time of Beat meetings.

Selected people from the community after initial few months’ loss their interest in

the program and tend to distance themselves from the beat officers. Beat officers

generally tend to skip these members and focus on the remaining few.

The beat officers are not provided transportation to visit their beat locations. Most

of them use their personal vehicles to cover the location assigned to them

because of time constraints.

No formal training is provided to the beat officer to execute the task assigned to

him. Many who were interviewed had expressed their concern regarding the lack

of training

10

Beat officers are unable to come up with suggestions and recommendations on

how to improve the system, when this question was put across to them.

These were the perceptions that were derived out from interviewing the beat officers. As

the next stage of research, interviews were carried out with citizens who were involved

directly with New Beat System. Participating in day beat alongside the beat officer made

the interviews possible. The following information were recorded from selected beat

members.

The people who interacted directly with the beat officers have a favorable opinion

about the Dept.

They knew details about the new beat initiative of KSP

They conveyed their time constraints in attending meetings scheduled as a part

of Community policing.

They also failed to come up with suggestions to improve the system, which

according to them was running perfectly.

Interesting facts were revealed when others in the community, who were not directly part

of the beat system were interviewed.

They knew nothing about the community police initiative of KSP.

Even the immediate neighbors of selected beat members knew nothing about the

police presence in the locality.

They didn’t had a positive views about the service level the Dept. offers to them.

Though many participated in gram panchayat meetings and Dalit meetings they

were not aware of beat meetings organized in their neighborhood.

This totally contradicting dataset was obtained from interviewing two groups of public.

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CONCLUSIONS

Based on the data collected from the interviews the following conclusion were arrived at

The people who are not involved in the beat system had limited knowledge about

the community police initiative of KSP.

The lack of proper training was affecting the ability of beat officer to undertake

his/her duties confidently

Need for brainstorming sessions were identified as both the beat officers and

community representatives were getting adapted to the stagnant system. Instead

of evolving the system into an effective one they were aligning themselves with

the system.

An interesting fact came into picture when the demographics of the participating

community members was analyzed. The age group of 18-25 are ill represented in

the list. Though the list maintains the diversity of religion and caste, the

youngsters who can be of service to police Dept. are not being inducted into the

list.

The community policing initiative of KSP is less visible before the community.

The need for branding the entire activity and bringing various initiatives like Dalit

meeting, new beat system etc. under one umbrella will increase the brand value

of KSP and increase its visibility. For example the initiatives taken up by the

Kerala Police named Janamaithri.

There was no clarity regarding the mode of transportation for the beat officers,

this should be addressed and the decision should be clearly adhered to, giving

no chance for grievances about using private vehicle for beat activity.

The practice of entrusting additional responsibility to the beat officer should be

discontinued. Loading the beat personnel with additional work will render them

ineffective during their beat activity.

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The need to evolve into community governance from community policing should

be addressed. Community governance is a holistic approach to problem solving,

which can be utilized to address concerns of the public not related to Police Dept.

Beat review meetings should be conducted regularly and without fail as review

sessions are important in identifying problems beat officers face and arriving at a

solution.

A proper briefing should be performed by the predecessor while handing over the

charge to a newly appointed beat officer, otherwise a beat officer takes 2-3

month to get to know his territory and people belonging in that beat.Inshort, he

has to start from scratch.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the analysis of the data collated, problems were identified in the system. The

recommendations made are based on secondary research performed over internet to

find out the popular trends in community policing and also the practices performed by

Police Depts. of other states.

COMMUNITY GOVERNANCE

Police Dept. needs to make a strategy change from community policing to community

governance to accommodate for the changing social scenario. The dept. needs to

establish multidisciplinary partnerships with the community to address local public safety

issues. This means establishing contacts with various business enterprises, individual

community members and most notably other Government depts., especially at a

municipal level.

Community governance basically means different government agencies working in

tandem to interact with the community and solve various problems faced by it.

Community governance philosophy consist of four elements.

1. Partnerships among municipal agencies.

2. Partnerships with the community.

3. Collaborative problem-solving efforts.

4. Organizational change

One of the problems noted during the interviews were the issues faced by police

personnel when citizens ask them questions that are no way related to the Police Dept.

Beat officers are easily accessible to the public, and hence, they are asked questions

related to other departments. Instead of looking at this as a pain point, the Police Dept.

can indulge in proactive dispensing of information thereby boosting the strength of their

position in the community and making stronger relationships and bonds with the

community..

14

Beat meetings can be utilized as a tool for implementing community governance.These

meetings are conducted once a month. The meeting’s main agenda is to get complaints

and suggestion from citizens belonging to beat and thereby improve the system to

ensure community’swelfare. But in reality, these meetings never reap the benefit they

are supposed to, as most of the complaints that public raise are about other Depts. And

also no brainstorming happens during the meetings, hence defeating the very purpose

for which the meetings are conducted. Incorporating other municipal Depts. can solve

the first half of the problem. The people can direct their questions directly to the Dept.

concerned and can expect a reply to the grievances.

Police Dept. can take the initiative of arranging these meetings. A step toward that

direction was taken in the due course of this project by Ms.Radhika, IPS who arranged a

meeting with Ms. M Kanagavalli, CEO, Udupi Gram panchayat for discussing the

practicality of this model.

Figure 1. Discusion on implementing Community Governance

PERIODIC BEAT REVIEW MEETINGS Beat review meetings should be conducted regularly to gather information from the beat

officers. The system should be continuously monitored and updated from time to time for

15

its successful functioning. Beat officers are the field agents of this system, if their

suggestions and grievances are not heard then the entire system can become ineffective

quickly. These review meetings can be used as brain storming venues to come up with

new ideas.

I witnessed one beat review meeting at Karkala station. The meeting was very fruitful in

terms of the suggestions that came up. These meetings should be scheduled and

conducted regularly so that system can be improved on a continuous basis.

Figure 2 Beat Review Meeting

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BRAINSTORMING SESSIONS WITH PUBLIC

As the community policing strategy involves both the parties, i.e. both citizens and

public, suggestions from both the parties are important from the perspective of the

project.

One meeting was organized at Karkala station territory involving public from various

clusters of society. They had their share of complaints and suggestions. The meeting

was arranged and coordinated by Mr.Annamalai Kuppusamy, IPS.Towards the end of

the meeting various ideas were discussed.

Figure 3. Citizen meeting

17

Figure 4.Public participation in the event

SETTING UP COMPLAINT/SUGGESTION BOXES AT COLLEGES

Community governance is inclusive of those who are directly or indirectly involved in the

maintenance of law and order in the community along with the strong relationship with

the Policing Dept. During the interviews with the public, it was glaringly noticeable that

the youth [aging between 14-25 years] remained either ignorant or non-informed about

the Beat systems and its implementation in the areas around Udupi.

This was a major letdown especially since most of the prevalent crimes are those that

revolve around the youth of the community and their support is imperative for community

governance to flourish to its extent.

The reasons for disinterest revolved around the mistrust and the harsh image the youth

has about the Police Dept. and also because they are skeptical about the success of the

project since no result can be directly seen thus far. This being the vicious cycle that the

Dept. faces since community governance can show its benefits only if all strata of the

community work together and not until.

To solve this problem, it was suggested that all colleges have a suggestion box and a

complaint box affixed in their main areas. This would help youth to come forward and

place their issues with the Dept. directly and also help is passing along information

18

which they believe can be useful to any pertaining investigations in a private manner.

This idea appealed to Mr.Annamalai kuppusamy,IPS who took up the charge of

implementing this in the colleges coming under Karkala Circle.The execution of this is

going on at the time of preparing this report.

This is a recommendation which comes from the research which led to a district in

Kerala that has implemented this method of involving the youth in the policing process

with a fair amount of success (The Hindu, 2012).

This method would also ensure in the quick action that can be taken with respect to

crime against minors and youngsters which is plaguing the society in recent times.

TRAINING FOR BEAT OFFICERS

The training facilities of beat officers currently does not exist and this has to be

implemented to facilitate proper transfer of knowledge from the existing personnel to the

new personnel. It is also important that the officers are trained in people management

skills because they will be working closely with different people from the community. This

will give the police Dept. an opportunity to change the image and reputation it has with

the people who share the communal space with them.

It is again important to have proper knowledge transfer from one beat officer to the other

if any are being swapped or unavailable for the responsibility. The new beat officer must

not be made to start from scratch since trust building is an important part of community

governance and this does not happen overnight.

It is also expected of the beat officers to be trained in extensive problems solving and

organizational transformation as they relate to specific issues and challenges facing

today’s law enforcement professionals and the communities they serve.

To implement this extensive training, various web-based courses are available (Virginia

Center of Policing Innovation , 2014 ) where detailed course structure and patterns are

mentioned on how to train personnel on policing in community governance and the

usage of information technology to ensure the safety of the community and its citizens

during beats. We can use these courses and a basis initially to develop and implement a

comprehensive training which can be extended to the community as well in the future.

19

LIMITATIONS

Due to time constraints the data collection was done mainly from people coming

under Brahmavar station territory.

Difficulty in conversing in the local language with the local people: Most of the

people in Brahmavar were comfortable with Kannada. Hence some of the data

from respondents were not a true replication of what they wanted to put across.

The responses made by the public might be biased due to the presence of police

officials.

20

APPENDIX

Circular [A]

To: All PSI’s/PI’s in the District.

Inf: All CPI’s/DSP’s in the District. Addl S.P, Udupi District

From: Superintendent of Police, Udupi

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No. DCRB/Circular-01 /2009 Date: -09-2009.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Circular No.CRM/Misc-2/42/2009 dated: 15-04-2009 is received from D.G &

I.G.P, Karnataka State, Bangalore is reproduced below from information,

discussion, implementation & necessary action.

CIRCULAR

Sub: - The new Beat System.

PREAMBLE:

At present, in most of the Police Stations, day and night beats are served at random.

Available staff on a particular day or particular night is detailed for the beats to be served

on that particular day or night. Same staff is not regularly deputed for the same beat. As

a result, the beat staff do not develop any positive contacts with people helpful for

policing in the area and do they not feel responsible for the affairs of the beat. There is

no structure for close and continuous contact with members of public and the Head

Constables and Police Constables of a Police Station on day to day basis. Some of the

Police Station staff like writers, court duty staff and some others are not deputed for any

beat duty. Constabulary, which comprises more than 80% of Police force, rarely bring in

useful information through the existing beat system.

With a view to overcoming some of the difficulties mentioned above and making the

beat system more pro-active, vibrant and useful on day to day basis and with a view to

ensuring community participation on a more regular, intimate and responsible manner, it

is necessary to rationalize/re-organize the existing beats and beat system.

21

The Whole Police Station staff should be divided into as many teams as the number

of beats in a Police Station, Each team should be allotted a particular beat for a period of

one year

No staff should be permanently attached for court duty, Court duty must be changed

at least once in six months. Staff for special duties etc., should be chosen in such a

manner that no one particular beat is adversely effected on regular or long term basis

because of sending away more staff from that particular beat.

In each beat, about 50 citizens should be identified by the SHO in consultation with

others, They can be the following persons residing in that particular beat.

Members of Neighbourhood Watch Committees, Mahilla Committees, Peace

Committees, Citizen Committees etc.

Retired or serving Government Servants particularly Police officers or ex-army

officers.

Teachers including University or Degree College Lecturers, Professors.

Any other influential or useful person from Police point of view.

The composition of the citizens so chosen should not be elitist. There should be

people from all walks of life and different strata of society. If there are any slums in that

particular beat, 2 or 3 persons from each slum should be chosen.

The team of Policemen for a particular beat and the 50 citizens chosen from that

particular beat will from the Beat Group. Each Beat Group shall be headed by an ASI or

senior most Head Constable of the Group. PSI’s Law and Order and Crime shall be in

charge of 2 to 3 Beats depending on the number of beats in a particular Police Station

and the number of PSIs.

FUNCTIONING OF THE NEW BEAT SYSTEM:

Chapter XXII of Karnataka Police Manual Volume II lays down the guidelines for

beats and patrols in Rural Police Stations (Order Nos. 1066 to 1083). Chapter XXIII,

22

particularly Order Nos. 1086, 1093, 1094 lay down the guidelines about the working of

the Town and City Police Stations other than Bangalore City. These guidelines should

be kept in mind and adhered to for proper functioning of the new beat system.

BEAT BOOKS:

Each Policeman of a particular beat shall be given a beat book. Order No. 1076 lays

down the guidelines for maintenance of beat books in Rural Police Stations. These

guidelines, should be kept in mind. In any case, the beat books must contain the

following information.

Names and addresses of all the citizen members of the Beat Group with their

Telephone numbers, etc.

Containing names and addresses of

a. History sheeted persons

b. Suspects

c. Rowdy sheeted persons

d. M.O. criminals

e. Ex-convicts

f. Any other anti-social elements who are neither history sheeted persons nor

Rowdy sheeted persons residing in the particular beat.

Beat Map

List of property offences that have taken place in the beat for last two years with

exact location.

As and when a property offence is reported from the beat, the same should be entered

for the current year by the beat in-charge.

Gist of important law and order incidents that have taken place in the beat in last

two years.

Any important law and order incidents that takes place now should be entered for

the current year by the beat in-charge.

a. Wine shops in the beat.

b. Bars in the beat.

c. Slums in the beat.

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List of 10 most influential persons of the beat with their address, telephone

numbers, etc. They should be other than citizen members of the Beat Group.

Any other information considered useful for the particular beat or the Police

Station.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:-

The duties and responsibilities of beats as enumerated in Chapter XXII and

Order No. 1086, 1093 and 1094 of Chapter XXIII of Karnataka Police Manual

should be kept in mind.

The re-organized Beat Groups shall be in charge of Policing in their respective

beats. The Group shall be responsible for collection of day to day

information/intelligence on all aspects of policing. The Policemen of the Beat

Group shall keep in touch with the citizen members of the Beat Group on and off

duty and shall establish a rapport with them for effective information/intelligence

gathering.

The citizen members of the Beat Group should be treated as eyes and ears of

the Police in that area. There should be no condition like night rounds etc. for the

citizens for becoming member of the Beat Groups. It should be left to the

initiative of the Beat Group to encourage citizens to help Police in all manners in

preventing and detecting, crimes, maintenance of law and communal harmony.

It is not necessary that the Policemen of the Beat always meet the citizen

members in the Police Station or the latter’s home. They can meet anywhere and

discuss the developments in the area. Even chance meetings should be utilized

for this purpose.

A note book should be given to each policeman and citizen members of the Beat

Group. They must make entry in each other’s note book when they meet.

The Police members of the beat group should take the assistance of the citizen

members in collection of all types of intelligence and performance of their duties

like investigation of cases pertaining to that particular beat, obtaining mahazar

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witnesses, tracing OV criminals, tracing suspects, dissemination of crime

prevention information, crime prevention, night patrolling, maintenance of order,

controlling eve-teasing, controlling affray and drunken brawls etc. Process

pertaining to a particular beat should be given for execution/service to the

Policemen of that Beat Group.

Similarly, petition enquiries pertaining to that particular Beat should be entrusted

with the beat Policeman of that beat. They should enquire into the matter in the

presence of a few citizen members of the Best Group.

Policemen of a Beat Group should meet as many citizen members of their beat

as possible and as frequently as possible on day to day basis, Apart from

individual contracts/meetings, they should also hold local meetings in beat area

with all the citizen members of the Beat Group as frequently as possible, at least

once in a month.

The name, Officer and residential address, office and residential telephone

numbers, mobile phone number etc., of all the citizen members of all the Beat

Groups should be readily available in the Police Station beat-wise. A copy of this

should also be available in the office of the Dy.S.P. /Asst. Commissioner of

Police.

The Station House Officer of the Police Station must meet all the Beat Groups

separately at least once in a month in some area of that particular Beat. He

should also meet as many citizen members of the Beat Groups as possible

during his rounds make entry in the note book, Collect information and ensure full

Co-operation from the citizen members.

The Dy. S.P./Asst. Commissioners of Police of the Sub-Divisions must meet

each Beat Group Separately at least once in three months. These meetings

should be held in the area of the beat and not in the Police Station of office of the

Dy. S.P./Asst. Commissioner of Police.

REWARDS/RECOGNITION:-

Once in Six months or annually, Supdt. Of Police/ The Deputy Commissioner of

Police must choose the best beat in each Police Station, reward the Policemen of

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the beat and ensure recognition to the Beat Group as a whole by giving

certificates etc., to the citizen members of the Beat Group. He must also choose

the best Police Station from the re-organized beat system point of view annually.

A shield shall be awarded to the Police Station concerned. Due recognition

should be given to all the members of the beat group including the Policemen of

the best Police Station.

It shall be the responsibility of the Supdt. of Police of the District/Deputy

Commissioners of Police to ensure that the re-organized Beat System is

introduced in their Police Stations not later than three months from the date of

receipt of this Circular.

Superintendent of Police Udupi District, Udupi

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REFERENCES

Journal Reference:

Drew Diamond & Diedre Mead Weiss, 2014. “Advancing Community Policing Through Community Governance:A Framework Document”

Source: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/Publications/e050919202-AdvCommunityPolicing_final.pdf

Newspaper Article Reference:

“Police Complaint Boxes to be set up in Schools”, The Hindu November 2012. Sourced: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/police-complaint-boxes-to-be-set-up-in-schools/article4139071.ece

In -Text Reference: (The Hindu, 2012)

Website Reference:

VCPO,2014 “ Community Policing Training and Technical Assistance “. This data was collected from the website :http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/Default.asp?Item=2624

In-Text Reference:(Virginia Center of Policing Innovation,2014)