Prakasam police launch Project JIO in Ongole

Ongole: The Prakasam police launched 'Project JIO', an intellectual and psychological capacity building programme for the junior investigative officers at the Police Kalyanamandapam here on Friday.

District Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal explained the features of the project to senior investigating officers like SDPOs, Circle Inspectors, and sub-inspectors from all divisions along with their respective teams of selected junior investigative officers.

The SP said that there were hardly about 100 investigation officers in the Prakasam district to probe about 12000 fresh cases along with 6000 pending cases every year. He said that the Junior Investigation Officers (JIO) system is conceptualized for nearly one month and is being brought up for optimum utilization of the human resources that are underutilized up to now.

Siddharth said that the efficiency of the police department is in crisis nowadays due to the unavailability of investigative officers. He said that the present IOs have a burden that they hardly get two days for investigation of each case.

He opined that the long service of the constables is not being utilized efficiently up to now, but as JIOs and upgraded skills, they could be a great help in lessening the case burden.

The Project JIO, the SP said will save the department from a dire situation and increase the investigation officers' number from 100 to 500, so that they can get about 10 days to focus for effective handling of each case.

He explained that the public expects the police personnel to make decisions immediately and submit petitions at Spandana when the officers available fail to respond. He said that the increase in the number of decision-makers under Project JIO helps the public to have confidence in the department.

The SP said that capacity building is not only enough for the JIOs to work effectively, but they also need psychological building. He said that to boost their morale and build confidence, they need to change their environment also. He said that they are introducing a 'Guru-Sishya' system to change the work culture in the station and department and to motivate them.

He ordered the senior investigation officers and SHOs to give five cases for a week for each of the JIO to study them and learn how they were investigated before involving them in the field investigation.

He asked the SHOs to train the JIOs in taking complaints and imposing the applicable sections along with organizing a group discussion with all JIOs daily to know the progress of the cases and guide them in crime scene visits, identifying witnesses, rough sketch, preparing case dairies and completing the investigation.

He said that the SDPOs will mentor JIOs weekly once while CIs and SIs tutor them on crime investigation subjects. The SP announced that there will be no punishments for JIOs for one year for the mistakes they commit in the investigation of the cases, to let them learn the skill in a worry-free environment.

He also announced that they will maintain an Investigation Performance Report (IPR) for the JIOs in lines with the Automated Crime Record (ACR) for the SIs and above investigating officers in the department.

The SP announced that the JIOs with better performance will have perks like rewards, lunches with SP, priority in transfers and leaves etc and asked them to learn the skills by January as the IPR will be initiated from January 2020.