Don't let barricades lie on roads, use them in strategic locations, cops told

New Delhi: In order to curb rising crime in the Capital, the Delhi Police have now told officers to ensure that pickets are placed on strategic locations based on the crime pattern analysis of the concerned areas.

Sources told Millennium Post that earlier this month, a meeting was held between the top brass of city police in which DCPs were told that no barricades should be left in a horizontal position unattended on the roads. They were further told by a senior officer that they should also take stock of the resources available to them and make up the shortfall.

"The barricades should be repaired or repainted and if required requisitioned as per requirement. Proper reflectors, blinkers must be used while deploying pickets, barricades after sunset," the senior official directed DCPs.

Sources have said there are more than 200 permanent and over 600 temporary pickets in the city. As per officials, temporary pickets were placed to curb street crime, eve-teasing, drug and liquor trafficking. Many times, based on tip-offs, these are also placed to catch gangsters.

In the first week of July, a senior official made observations about picketing. "The official found that in the jurisdiction of one of the police stations, deployment of pickets were found to be a routine practice, without any crime data analysis. He also observed that the prevalent system of subdivision patrolling needs to be reviewed," sources said.

"Deployment of pickets always plays an important role in crime control strategies," an official said.

The senior official had said pickets should be placed at strategic points and there was a need for a Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Crime (STAC). "STAC should be undertaken to develop more efficient ways to analyse crime patterns, offender mobility and serial offences over time and place," the official said.