CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu govt on Thursday announced plans to add 29,108 police personnel to the state force over the next five years. At least 10,000 personnel, including 5,000 women, will be recruited this year, said chief minister C Joseph Vijay in the assembly. The state at present has a total sanctioned police strength of 1,34,667 personnel, with a shortage of 15,000 posts, he added.Tamil Nadu’s population has crossed 80 million, according to govt data. Of the existing police strength, 1,18,851 personnel are now in service, along with 9,807 ministerial staff. The state’s police-to-population ratio stands at 1:675, which is better than the national average of 1:831.Vijay also announced Rs 212 crore for a police modernisation programme and Rs 200 crore for procuring new vehicles for the force. It is intended to improve patrolling and emergency response capacity. The modernisation allocation will cover artificial intelligence, digital forensics, real-time surveillance and communication and control centres.On the forensic side, DNA testing facilities will be established at the Regional Forensic Science Laboratories in Salem and Villupuram at a cost of Rs 14 crore. Computer forensic divisions will also be established in Salem and Tirunelveli at a cost of Rs 18.73 crore.The monthly contingency allocation will increase from Rs 6,000 to Rs 40,000 for medium (based on police-population ratio) police stations and from Rs 8,250 to Rs 50,000 for heavy police stations. Special units will also receive enhanced allocations.The planned recruitment will increase women’s representation in the police force from 22% to 30%. A police officer said a sanctioned post does not automatically translate into a police officer being available on the ground, and that recruitment, training, transfers and deployment would determine whether the expansion eased workloads at police stations and improved response times.Another officer said the creation of Singappen Special Action Force and Anti-Narcotics Force reflected an effort to build specialised capacity rather than rely on the regular police force for every emerging category of crime. However, specialised personnel needed to be available at the station level, particularly outside major cities, with adequate training and institutional support, the officer said.Chennai will get an advanced video spectral comparator for examining documents, while an automated ballistic identification system will also be procured.
