CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Police (GCP) said that 8,000 personnel will be deployed across the city to regulate crowds at churches and at areas of public gathering like Marina beach, Elliot’s beach for Christmas celebrations. Volunteers from the Tamil Nadu Home Guards will also be deployed to assist the cops in bandobust duty.

“Since denizens will start visiting churches from Christmas eve, the police will be working on shifts from Wednesday evening,” police said.

In Chennai, there are 350 churches including the popular Santhome Church in Mylapore, Velankanni shrine in Besant Nagar, St Antony’s Church in Parrys, and St George Cathedral on RK Salai among others. Cops in plain clothes will monitor the crowd to nab pickpockets and also prevent incidents of eve teasing, police said.

Teams will also be monitoring CCTVs at crowded areas and the Drone unit will also be added to the surveillance. City cops will patrol the beaches in All Terrain Vehicles (ATV) to prevent the public from entering into the sea.

The Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) has also made arrangements to regulate traffic and facilitate parking.