Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Police has earned a lot of bad press of late with several cops accused of heinous crimes and high-handedness.
In a bid to keep a tab on the force, a high-level police team has drawn up plans to visit to all 20 police districts to know firsthand what ails the system.
A team of senior officers, headed by State Police Chief and Director General of Police (DGP) Anil Kant will be touring the police districts.
Additional DGP M R Ajith Kumar (Law and Order), Inspector Generals and Deputy IGs of police ranges are part of the team.
A special meeting of the city and rural police officers would be convened in each district to discuss the problems.
All officers from the Sub-Inspector to the district police chief (Superintendent of Police) have been directed to participate in the meeting.
This meeting has been held in Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kannur districts.
During the meeting, the district police chief would elaborate upon the cases and the complaints raised against the police officers.
The stance taken in each case and the criticisms faced would also be evaluated.
The Chief Minister had directed that those officers, involved in criminal cases, and featuring on the tainted list should be excluded from law and order duties.
After the DGP's team visits all police districts, the detailed list of such officers would be handed over to the Home Department.
A total of 22 SPs were conferred the IPS recently and given new responsibilities, but only three got law and order duties.
Though there were recommendations for some officers from the higher-ups, the Home Department had insisted that the priority list for those considered for law and order duties should be based only on 'merit'.
Performance of district police chiefs
The DGP has also initiated a special meeting of the DGP-SP to assess the performance of the district police chiefs, on the basis of Intelligence inputs.
And in case of lapses, they would be summoned to the police headquarters to mend their ways and to enthuse the indolent cops.
