A Guide To Policing Delhi And Criminology

This book is a study against the backdrop of Delhi’s history including cultural and socio-political edges of the mid-19th century. It greatly emphasises different aspects of Delhi Police that have travelled a journey through various folds and changes. It focuses on population that swelled up at an alarming pace so did the crime rate in the city of Delhi as well as the nature of crime.

Through unflagging efforts with a real hard mental and leg work, the author Dr Mishra introduces the reader to the insides of the police and its work culture as he has squeezed all his experiences in this book. Touching delicately the reaches depicting many facets he interweaves his sociological dissertation with policing crime of the city. He has seen the police not only through his own spectacles but apparently working with it and observed every aspect of the system the police functions within. He has compiled all minute details district-wise in a very compact form. The subtle connection interlinking urbanization at a fast pace, crime on the rise and the law enforcement agency is deftly expounded in the read.

Each chapter with graphical representations has a lot to say in a categorically manner, things that encompass every single Delhiite. Discussed at length are crimes and different groups and gangs operating in Delhi. Besides, terrorism, infrastructure constraints, crime against women and juveniles, technology and policing, typology of criminals and prevention of crime are very well defined.

Above all, how crime prevails in different parts of Delhi, criminals’ MO, nature of crime, frequency, first timers, desperate offenders, crime syndicate and gangs etc are closely observed. How can those coming from the adjoining states with a view to committing a crime and fleeing thereafter be combed out of the clustered ghettoes? How these offenders, after committing a crime, melt in the thick crowd or camouflage themselves in the area inhabiting outstation students to evade arrest and wait by the time the dust settles down.

The book details crimes under IPC and CrPC and also deals with a history that wraps many layers in it. The number of police stations in December 1951 was 18, and in November 1962 it rose to 38. In 1965 the city was protected with three police districts—south, north and central. Now the change in the system can be seen with naked eyes as now the number of PCR vans in Delhi is 666, stationed at important tourist places. Besides, the book details the entire data of PCR calls received in the recent past years, accidents and road accidents, women-related crimes, and also the arrests of criminals including dacoits, robbers, snatchers, and burglars. The author shares myriads of his experiences about Crime Branch, Economic Offence Wing (EOW), Special Branch, Special Unit for Crime against Women in 1995, Police Control Room (PCR), Traffic Police in 1925 its CCC drive check, chase and challan, VIP Security Unit, Narcotics Cell and Special Cell. He further talks about manpower and increasing number of police stations and proper co-ordination that starts from a constable on the beat to his division officer to the police station head SHO then to the ACP sub-division concerned who is linked by the district head DCP led by the range head IG or Joint Commissioner of Police.

By Syed Wazid Ali