Lucknow and Noida to Get Police Commissioner System

• 16 Jan 2020

Why in News

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh government gave nod to the implementation of the police commissionerate system in the two cities, Lucknow and Noida.

• The Additional Director General of Police rank officer would be appointed as commissioner and will have two Inspector General of Police Rank officers as deputies.
• The current system would be monitored for six-months on a review basis to know its effectiveness in handling law and order better and the earlier system of District Magistrates (DMs) would be done away on an experimental basis.

Key Points

• Apart from these, the new team would also have a special Superintendent of Police (SP) appointed for women security to ensure control of crime related to women and timely investigation of the registered cases.
• Also, there would be another SP rank officer who would be in charge of Traffic management. CCTV cameras would be installed at different places in these two cities for better traffic management and also for law and order.

Police Commissionerate System

• Under the 7^th Schedule of the Constitution, Police is under the State list. It means individual states can legislate and exercise control over this subject.
  
  • At the district level, a ‘dual system’ of control exists, in which the SP has to work with the DM for supervising police administration.
• At the metropolitan level, many states have replaced the dual system with the commissionerate system, as it is supposed to allow for faster decision-making to solve complex urban-centric issues.
  
  • Almost all states barring Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, UT of J&K, and some Northeastern states have a commissionerate system.
  • The British brought the system first in Kolkata and followed it in Mumbai and Chennai presidencies. Delhi turned into a commissionerate during 1977-1979.
• In the commissionerate system, the Commissioner of Police (CP) is the head of a unified police command structure.
  
  • He/she is responsible for the force in the city and is accountable to the state government.
  • The office also has magisterial powers, including those related to regulation, control, and licensing.
  • Under this system, the commissioner does not report to the DM.
• The CP is drawn from the Deputy Inspector General rank or above and is assisted by Special/Joint/Additional/Deputy Commissioners.

Dual System

• Under the colonial system, the overall in-charge of a district or region was the district collector and the SP reported to him.
• The powers of the executive magistrate, such as issuing orders for preventive arrests or imposition of Section 144 CrPC, were vested in the district collector.
• This was called the dual system of police administration.

Source: IE