Coimbatore Police adopt new patrolling principle to curb crimes in the city
Rather than conventionally patrolling the city, police have identified around 50 crime-prone areas across the city and intensified patrolling during the day and night hours to prevent crimes from happening.
The system, which is in place in the city for the past 10 days, is based on the “Koper Curve Principle”, developed by Christopher S Koper, an associate professor at George Mason University from Virginia in the US and a senior fellow at the university’s Centre for Evidence-Based Crime Policy.
The principle works on the basis that most crimes were committed in certain areas in a particular jurisdiction. Koper’s studies indicated that as much as 50% of crimes occur in less than 5% of blocks or streets. By focusing on these hotspots, Koper’s research found, crime rates can be reduced substantially.
Stationing officers in one place or making them patrol the entire city is costly and ineffective. Instead, the principle recommends proactive, random and intermittent patrols of the hotspots for 10-16 minutes every two hours.
Koper’s research showed that the likelihood of criminal activity within 30 minutes of a patrol drive-by was 15%. When random police stops lasting 10-16 min’utes were incorporated, the likelihood of criminal activity dropped to 4%.
“We have identified around 50 crime-prone areas in the 15 police station limits. The cops who are deployed for night patrol would conduct vehicle checks randomly and they won’t be stationed at one place. They will question suspiciously looking people roaming around the city during late-night hours,” said city police commissioner Pradip Kumar.
“Every day more than 250 cops were deployed for night rounds and most of them are using face recognition software in their mobile phones. The software is connected to the CCTNS (crime and criminal tracking network and systems) network. The cops click a picture of suspicious-looking people and check it with the CCTNS network to identify miscreants,” said Pradip Kumar.
As of now, as many as 650 cops have installed the face recognition software on their mobile phones and on average each click 200-250 pictures a day to check them with the database.
Since the system has been introduced, police visibility on the streets has increased. Police officers and the public are giving positive feedback about the system.
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