GURUGRAM: The new police commissioner announced his arrival on Thursday with a promise to reduce the workload of Gurugram’s overburdened police officials. He said his priority would be to free up time for them to focus on regular policing work.K K Rao, who took charge as Gurugram police commissioner on Wednesday, said his initial observation about the city was that service roads, whose primary function is for vehicles with breakdowns to be diverted away from busy thoroughfares to them, had all been converted into parking spaces . “We’ll first issue warnings to owners of vehicles parked on service roads, then take strict action,” he said, addressing the press. The problem of roadside parking, he said, was also rampant around metro stations In the first 15 days, Rao said he will conduct frequent checks to reduce pending work and ensure police personnel are free to carry out policing functions.“If police personnel are overloaded, they won’t be able to work for the people,” he said, emphasising on prevention and detection of crime, as well as “maximum visibility” — by bringing down pending cases to less than 20%. The top cop also said he will try to get as many posts in Gurugram filled as possible.He also appealed to residents to carry out police verification of tenants and servants. “Most criminals , when caught, are found to have lived unobtrusively as domestic helps or tenants,” he said. He emphasised how verification could lead to more information with police, which could deter criminals, but ruled out organising special camps for verification in the near future, saying the focus will be on freeing cops from pending cases.When asked about the infamous police control room ( PCR ) and 100 number, Rao said he’ll get it reviewed and will deploy decoys to check response time of cops on duty, by collecting data on response time of cops to staged alerts. He added one should remember the force works under trying conditions. “My jawans on duty don’t sit in AC rooms, but stands in the street for hours. It also affects his health. But we want to provide effective security in residential areas. I’ve asked that work be distributed equally to all cops, so that only a few are not burdened,” he said.Regarding the rise in vehicle thefts and snatching, he said increased visibility of cops on streets should bringing down these menaces. On crime against women, Rao said information on such cases take a while to reach them, and appealed to people to approach the police as soon as possible. When asked about criminals operating out of jails, he said he had spoken to the jail superintendent as soon as he arrived, and will schedule a visit to the prison soon.Responding to a question from TOI, he denied gangs and extortion existed any more, saying these were “things of the past”, and shouldn’t be discussed in public anyway. He also emphasised in developing strategies to counter crime, for which he had already started meeting senior cops.

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