Kolkata: Beat Constables are grassroots level police personnel in any police force, whose work is to freely mix with the people in a locality and secure information about the crime trend there. This system prevailed in Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police in the pre-independence period. It even continued for some time during the post-independence era.
Officially, the term "Beat" signifies a system, where a new recruit in constable rank is being trained by a senior and experienced constable in getting familiar with a locality and the crime trend there. However, in actuality, the police authorities used to combine experience and youth to secure information about the crime trend in the locality, so that all crucial information reaches the police stations or section levels concerned.
However, due to an increase in work pressure and lack of manpower at a later stage, the system of "Beat" virtually remained on paper and not in practice. Hence, often the police stations and sections lack prior information of any possible future crime event or even an ongoing crime event in a locality. Having burnt its fingers, the top brasses of both Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police have decided to revive that old and traditional "Beat" system.
When contacted for his expert comments, former deputy commandant of National Security Guard (NSG), Dipanjan Chakraborty said that the system of "Beat Constable" was first introduced during the pre-independent period by the then Calcutta Police commissioner, Charles Tegart.
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"The constables who work in close coordination with the grassroots level common people in the locality were addressed as Beat Constables. Each police station, which is headed by an officer in the rank of inspector of police, is divided into zones. Each zone is under the charge of one officer, in the rank of sub-inspector. Again each zone is divided into micro-zones which are called Beats, which is managed by personnel in the rank of Beat constables. These Beat Constables move around in their respective micro-zones, get easily mixed up among common people, silently secure crime trend information and pass it on to the police station or section levels. These Beat constables need to have in-depth knowledge about their respective micro-zones since they actually work as the eyes and ears of their senior officers," Chakraborty told ETV Bharat.
He also said that it is quite unnatural for anti-social activities in the micro-zones to evade the eyes of the Beat Constables. "If that happens, either the Beat Constable concerned is inefficient and corrupt and hence should be replaced immediately," he added.
When contacted for his comments on the revival of the Beat system, joint commissioner (headquarters) of Kolkata Police, Suvankar Sinha Roy said the authorities are sincerely working on this issue. "Our personnel are being regularly trained on this matter," he said.
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Of late, distinct areas both under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police as well as West Bengal police have witnessed rising crime rates. Often these crimes are technology related. But in many cases, there has not been any necessary change in the policing system to tackle the changing modes of crime. There had been several instances where the officer-in-charge or inspector-in-charge is not aware of the crime parameters in the areas under his or her jurisdiction. Often they do not have knowledge about the newcomers in a locality or the number of hotels and guest houses in their areas.
Such small lacunas often take major shapes at a later stage. Khagragarh blast, shootout and encounters at a posh housing complex at New Town or pornography rackets in the mushrooming guest houses in the Salt Lake-New Town areas are some examples. The police station level officers often complain that lack of manpower is the main reason behind such information gaps.
