City's holiday spots under scrutiny

MUMBAI: The CCTV network is working but the lighting is poor. Result: the subject (a potential bomb planter) can’t be identified. And if the lighting is good, the television screen is not being monitored. In some ways, malls and multiplexes are sitting ducks, given the state of their security systems at present.
They are the new holiday spots for the weekend crowd, the places which draw urban consumers in very large numbers.They symbolise the liberalised economy which has enriched a large section of Indian society. When Big Bazaar opened a bumper sale on January 26, 2006, the retail chain’s outlet at Phoenix Mill saw a footfall of 20 lakh potential customers.
By their very nature, they are a security hazard. And given the fact that they are run by commercial entities keen on keeping operating costs down, the police are ever worried about them. "There is a lot to improve and we are helping them to become more adequate," says K L Prasad, joint commissioner of police.
The key problem is in deployment of trained personnel. In a bid to cut down on salaries, mall owners are known to hire untrained guards, who are barely paid Rs 3,000 per month. "In many cases, private guards are there just for visual deterrence. But they should be physically fit to tackle an emergency situation and mentally alert to spot one," said Ashutosh Dumbare, deputy commissioner of police (anti-terrorism squad). He said guards should go through emergency response training and the police were willing to help them.
As a step in this direction, Mumbai police on Tuesday met owners or security managers of malls and multiplexes in the city to tell them that they needed to beef up their security systems. A PowerPoint presentation explained which areas needed more attention.
Barring the railways, the malls and multiplexes are the places which see the maximum footfalls in a city. While the railways are able to use both Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police personnel, the patrolling in malls is being carried out by private guards, many of whom are undertrained and poorly motivated.
For their part, mall owners admit that more needs to be done considering the increasing threat to security, but they also insist that they take adequate care in imparting a day-to-day sense of urgency to their staff.
At Centre One mall in Vashi, the constraints are evident as guard Sushila Mandave puts every visitor’s bag through the metal detector. On a Sunday, with visitors going upto 40,000-45,000, she clearly looks hassled. However, Rajendra Shinde, security manager of Centre One, claims they are up to the task. "Because of high footfalls we don’t keep bags at any counter. We check the bags and then allow them in. The metal detector is there but we also teach our staff psycho-profiling," he said.