Mumbai:
Mumbai has faced multiple terror attacks, and many security experts have pointed out that some of these attacks could have been tackled better or even prevented if the intelligence inputs had been taken note of, processed, and acted upon. The Mumbai Police is now starting a new position, with a Joint Commissioner of Police handling intelligence specifically. Dr Arti Singh, an IPS officer of the 2006 batch, will be taking charge as Mumbai’s first Joint Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) today.
This is the sixth post of a joint commissioner in the Mumbai Police organisational structure, which already has Joint Commissioners of Police for handling Law and Order, Crime, Administration, Economic Offences Wing and Traffic.
The Joint Commissioner of Police (Intelligence) will report to the Commissioner of Police directly and will be responsible for overseeing intelligence gathering, including keeping track of sleeper cells, officials said. Mumbai Police already has the Special Branch that monitors every development in the city, collects intelligence inputs as well as keeps track of the activities of sleeper cells and (terror) sympathisers.
“Under the new mechanism, the joint commissioner of Special Branch will report directly to the commissioner and will also coordinate with the joint commissioner (law and order), an official said.
Earlier, the Additional Commissioner (special branch), who gathered intelligence, reported to the Joint Commissioner (law and order). Now, the Additional Commissioner (special branch) will report to the Joint Commissioner (Intelligence).
The Home Department of Government of Maharashtra in its order to create the post said that Mumbai is the financial capital of the country, with several vital installations that need to be safeguarded, and a large number of VIPs who have a high threat perception.
The new post will primarily remove the bottlenecks in real-time intelligence processing and create a clear channel of actionable intelligence for the Mumbai Police, experts say.
With illegal infiltrators often heading to the city, the police hope the time lags in processing intelligence will be addressed.
The latest development comes after transfers and postings of top officers were announced following the appointment of Deven Bharti as the Commissioner of Police for Mumbai city earlier this month. Till now, the Mumbai Police had no specific Intelligence Unit, and the Special Branch of the Mumbai Police was largely responsible for intelligence gathering. Each department and its officers had a network of informants, but with the lack of a structured intelligence gathering and processing unit in an era of new crimes and targets, the need for a specific intelligence unit within the Mumbai Police was felt.
