Tamil Nadu to better national average in police-public ratio

With the sanction of 29,108 new posts in the Police Department, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has addressed a long-pending critical issue — acute shortage of manpower and corresponding increase of workload impacting the overall efficiency of the force.The State Police Department is now set to better the national average of police-public ratio, which has been steadily declining in recent years.The police-public ratio in the Tamil Nadu Police was 198.07 in 2013, which was 12.82 points higher than the national ratio of 185.25. However, the data for 2024 revealed that the ratio in the State had declined to 171.98, while the national ratio had increased to 194.40. The huge vacancies in the rank and file led to tremendous pressure on the existing strength due to increasing population, urbanisation, and surge in crimes over the years, impacting prevention/detection of crimes, investigation of grave offences, and other routine policing work.Though new Police Commissionerates, Police Districts, and Special Units were created in the last 6-7 years, only 1,881 new posts were sanctioned. With about 20,000 police personnel redeployed in the newly created establishments, the workload on the force, especially among police constables, Head Constables and Sub-Inspectors, increased substantially. The urgent need to fill vacancies was also recommended in the Fifth Tamil Nadu Police Commission, the report of which has not been tabled yet.Sources in the police headquarters say in 2009, police stations were classified into Light, Medium, and Heavy categories, with sanctioned strengths of 30, 50, and 80 personnel respectively. It was based on this classification that additional manpower was sanctioned in 8 districts during 2011, 2013, and 2018, amounting to 4,928, 5,000 and 6,086 posts respectively. However, the total of these 16,014 posts were short of the actual requirement of 24,481 posts.Strength after 17 years “After a period of 17 years from the original classification, the required additional strength has now been sanctioned in the current year. This is an important step towards addressing manpower shortages and reducing the workload of police personnel,” says Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, Director-General of Police and Head of the Police Force.Earlier, the State government issued orders creating 4,563 new posts for the newly created Singappen Special Force and Anti-Narcotics Task Force. “With the creation of these posts, the police-public ratio in Tamil Nadu is expected to rise above the current all-India average. This will help reduce the workload of police personnel and facilitate the deployment of more personnel for field duties, thereby improving police response and public safety,” Dr. Aggarwal said.The government also announced funds for replacement of condemned vehicles. The shortage of vehicles had previously led to delays in reaching locations associated with distress calls and crime scenes. The induction of additional vehicles would enable police personnel to respond promptly to emergencies and crime scenes, thereby helping control situations at the initial stage itself, police officers say.The ₹212 crore allotted for the modernisation of the force would help focus on deploying Artificial Intelligence, Digital and Information Technology Infrastructure, Continuous Surveillance Systems, among others that would help the police tackle emerging challenges related to security, intelligence and investigation.The enhancement of contingency funds at the police station level from ₹3,750 in light to ₹30,000 in Light, ₹6,000 to ₹40,000 in Medium and ₹8,250 to ₹50,000 in Heavy police stations would not only help Station House Officers meet administrative and unforeseen expenses, but also minimise complaints of corruption. The allocation of ₹4,477.58 crore under the Police Demand for 2026-27 alone was a jump by 11.6 times compared to the average annual allocation made in the last five years, police sources said.