CAG red flags on Delhi Police: Dysfunctional CCTVs, radio communication

The percentage of satisfactorily functioning CCTV cameras out of a total 3,870 installed in the national capital by theDelhi police is "abysmally low", said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

The report also flagged the sharp rise of 275 percent in the crimes registered in Delhi under the Indian Penal Code in 2019 as compared to 2013. It, however, said the Delhi Police attributed this sharp increase to comprehensive reporting of crimes and the facility to lodge e-FIRs.

According to the findings of the report on 'Manpower and Logistics Management in Delhi Police', theDelhi Police has installed 3,870 CCTV cameras at strategic locations in entire the entire city.

"The percentage of cameras functioning satisfactorily is abysmally low, ranging from entirely defunct camera (pilot phase) to 31 percent to 44 percent defunct cameras in various other phases," it said.

The report said the Delhi Police is using a 20-year-old trunking system (APCO), which is 10 years beyond its normal life span. A trunking system is a two-way radio communication.

"Proposals for up-gradation of these sets were initiated 10 years ago but even tenders have not been finalized yet. The number of wireless sets under the conventional system declined from 9,638 in June 2009 to 6,172 in June 2019 as the sets condemned during the period were not regularly replaced," the report said.

The CAG report also pointed out "the functioning of the Delhi police being affected by shortages in manpower".

"MHA had approved 12,518 posts with advice to operationalise 3,139 posts first and then remaining 9,379 posts after deployment of 3,139 personnel on ground. However, due to failure of Delhi Police to recruit against these 3,139 posts, the remaining 9,379 approved posts could not be operationalised (August 2020)," it said.

The report further stated that representation of women in Delhi Police was 11.75 per cent, which was much lower than the desired target of 33 per cent.

The housing satisfaction was also quite low as there were only 15,360 quarters available for about 80,000 Delhi Police personnel.

The report said only one out ofthe 72 police stations test-checked in the audit had staff as per the norms prescribed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).

"In these 72 police stations, we found, there was 35 per cent shortage of manpower. Acute shortage of staff has put the police personnel under tremendous strain as their average daily duty hours in the six test-checked police districts (Central, New Delhi, South, Dwarka, North East and Rohini) ranged from 12 to 15 hours against eight hours as prescribed under the Model Police Act 2006," it said.