Police to get body cameras, drones

He said 20 law and order units in cities and districts would get 10 body worn cameras each at a cost of Rs 1 crore. Also, police commissionerates and ranges would be provided 16 drones at a cost of Rs 38 lakh, Palaniswami, who also holds portfolios of police and fire departments, said while making new announcements for the police and fire departments in the Assembly.

Though the data released by the government state that serious crimes have gone up in the state, Chief Minister Palaniswami informed the House that the crime cases had decreased in the state when compared to the previous years. He said that there were 1,996 cases of crime against women such as rape, dowry death, cruelty by husband or his relatives and molestation were registered in 2018 as against 2,070 cases in 2017. As far as road accidents are concerned, there were 63,290 accidents reported in 2018, which includes 11,375 fatal accidents resulting in 12,216 deaths but in 2017, there were 65,562 road accidents, including 15,061 fatal accidents in which there were 16,157 deaths. Despite addition of 19.94 lakh vehicles in 2018, the number of accidents have reduced due to constant efforts by police department, said Palaniswami.

Replying to the debate on demand on grants of Police department, Palaniswami said, “Tamil Nadu continues to remain as the land of peace due to continuous efforts from police department. Compared to all other states and even neighbouring states, crime rate is lower in the state according to data from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).”

He further said that number of chain snatching cases have reduced dramatically. Last year, from January to June, there were 258 chain snatching cases in the state but this year, in the same period, there were only 135 cases reported and out of that in 120 cases, the chain snatchers were nabbed.