Short-staffed city cops struggle to curb felonies

COIMBATORE: While burglary and chain snatching incidents are on the rise, city police are unable to resolve many of these cases, as criminals continue to loom large on the horizon.
Chain snatching cases have been reported mostly in RS Puram, while burglary cases have been reported in Saravanampatty police limits. Three burglary cases have not been solved in Saravanampatty and two chain snatching cases in RS Puram are yet to be solved.A chain snatching incident and burglary are yet to be solved in Kuniyamuthur and Singanallur police limits.
City police commissioner TP Sundaramoorthy had formed 15 special teams recently to curb illegal and criminal activities including illegal lottery, illicit liquor, gambling and prostitution. He warned police officers that he would come down hard on them if they failed to crackdown on the rampant illegal activities.
Police officials seem to be busy conducting raids to curb illegal activities, neglecting their patrolling duties. "Visible policing methods are very effective in curbing crime. If police engage in round-the-clock patrolling, chain snatching and burglaries will decline," said a senior police official who wished to remain anonymous.
"Police officials have failed to collect information on suspects. There is a shortage of staff in the crime police department. Officers are not motivated to achieve breakthroughs. Senior police officers should focus on high profile burglary and chain snatching cases, showing the way for the younger officers," he added.
"We cannot concentrate on multiple cases at the same time. However, our senior officers don't understand this. The police commissioner rebukes us for not being able to solve crimes. But we are short-staffed and over-burdened. While the city population has increased to 16 lakh, we have only 2,500 police personnel to protect them," said a police officer from the crime department.
On January 2, a burglary case was reported at KRG Nagar near Ganapathy. J Alwin Francis, 34, a physical education teacher at a private school had gone with his family to Bangalore on December 23. He returned home on January 2, and saw 20 sovereigns of gold jewels and some silver articles missing from the house.
On the same day, burglars broke into the house of Ashok Kumar, a software engineer, residing at Maniyakaran Palayam and decamped with 57 sovereigns of gold jewels and Rs 52,000 in cash. The incident came to light when the software engineer and his wife returned home after celebrating the New Year at their ancestral home in Pollachi.
On March 18, burglars broke open a house at Kumaran Nagar near Ganapathy, decamped with 40 sovereigns of gold ornaments. The house belonged to M Rangarajan (53), owner of a tea plantation in Nilgiris, who had gone with his family to the Murugan temple in Palani.
On March 5, burglars decamped with 24 sovereigns of gold jewels from a house at Rajiv Gandhi Nagar.
All the above cases are yet to be solved. When contacted, police commissioner Sundaramoorthy said that officers, including deputy commissioner (crime), are undergoing a training programme. "We are doing the best we can to nab the culprits. We are facing severe man-power shortage which makes it very difficult for us to curb criminal activity," he said.