Its ten thirty on a Saturday night, most of the city is unwinding after a long week of being busy. Some may choose to go out and spend a few hours at one of the cities many clubs, restaurants and pubs; others may choose to spend the few hours at a friend’s house to have a good time and enjoy the weekend.
But for sub inspector P.Hariharan, head constable P.Sampath Kumar and constable A Manikam the night has just begun. They are members of the night patrol squad from the J2 Adyar police station. Their job for the night- to prevent crime and ensure that there is law on the streets. The comb the streets throughout the night ensuring that there is peace and order.
There is a squad car from every police station patrolling the areas under its jurisdiction. Under this police station are the areas of Gandhinagar, Lattice bridge road, Sardar Patel road, Indira Nagar and Kasturibai Nagar.
The squad car has an order of priority in terms of work. “We first head out at about ten thirty to ensure that the wine shops in the area have been closed” says constable Sampath “they have a time restriction of ten P.M are the ones that attract the most amount of trouble”.
After some basic paper work me and Soumava climb into the patrol car at ten forty five to begin our rounds. Our first destination is Kanagi Nagar, a slum, located on the Cooum River, which incidentally is the maximum jurisdiction of the police station.
“There are around 1000 people living in the slum, this along with another slum called Maligaipu Nagar located nearby are volatile areas. “ we need to keep a constant check on them and ensure that there is no trouble” says SI Hariharan. Sampath and Manikam further add to this by saying that generally crimes are not reported from these areas because of the fear of retribution from the local slumlords, what insight we have made into these places is through constant investigations and regular visits.
The night patrolling works on the Patta system. When the squad car visits an area it signs in a register stating that it has visited the area. This includes ATM’s, banks, religious institutions as well as any residence or home that has private security.
Since this is a rather posh area the chances of murder, drug abuse and rape cases are very less. “We generally receive calls about domestic disturbances and petty theft. Vehicle crimes are also low here because of the motorcycle patrols which are able to go into smaller areas”.
The real work begins at midnight; this is the curfew for all shops and restaurants to down shutters. In the next one hour we travel to all the major commercial establishments clearing crowds and shutting shops. The trend of late night eating which has picked up in the last few years has ensured that Khakhi clad men have their hands full.
Being a Saturday night we are acquainted with drunks, junkies and the random strangers all sauntering home after a night of heavy drinking and merry making.
Located near the police station is a theater which is emptying itself after the late night movie. The squad parks itself in the middle of the road and ensures the smooth flow of people leaving the theater.
While this is going on there is a radio in the squad car which is constantly chattering with activity and communication. Almost all parts of the city are in constant touch with each other. We are able to catch chatter of the chief minister’s convoy heading through Gopalpuram, minute by minute in addition to this there is constant motivation and advice for all areas from range officers telling squad cars to be alert and ensure that trouble is mitigated. “The wireless radios, squad cars and bike brigades have been a great boon to us.
“When I began patrolling around twenty five years ago we would do our rounds on cycles if there was an emergency we had to use the public telephones to contact the station, it was tedious, slow and in many cases dangerous. Nowadays the crime rates have dropped massively because we are able act swiftly and cover larger areas in lesser time” says Sampath Kumar.
Between one fifteen and three fifteen we make our way around various areas signing Patta books and visiting “important houses’. Some of the houses in this area are empty for much of the year many of the owners make requests the police station to come and check on them at least once in two days.
The full level alertness required for this job is only revealed when stop for a small break to stretch our legs. Standing near a four way junction we see a man riding away from a house. Samapath tells us that the man is a call center employee and that he works night shifts for odd days of the week and day shifts on even days of the week. “One part of this job is to be aware and alert. Within just a month of patrolling areas we are able to tell identify which vehicle belongs to which house and who goes where and comes back at what time” says Sampath.
After stopping what looks like a motorcycle theft in progress we return to the station to recharge the walkie talkies when a call comes over the radio of a domestic disturbance outside a popular commercial establishment in Indira Nagar. It turns out to be a drunk and deranged man throwing stones on the road. The police “deal” with man and drive him away. Speaking to manager of the establishment he says that he is very grateful to the police and that they are doing an excellent job in keeping the streets safe and sound. After being treated to some free ice cream we resume duty and move towards finishing our rounds. By around three forty five most of the areas have settled down and all is quiet.
The patrolling runs from ten thirty at night to seven in the morning. The final phase begins at five am; this is known as the “walkers” phase where the squad moves to parks and popular walking spots to ensure that people taking morning walks are not disturbed or harassed.
Deciding that we have seen enough we request the cops to drop us back to the station. For us it has been an adventurous night where we have seen the cities uniformed guardians performing their duty but for them it is their job just another night and just another patrol in the quest to ensure our saftey
