Our new cybercrime helpline also tries to stall fraudulent payments: Noida police commissioner Alok Singh

The Noida police commissionerate, among the first two set up by the Yogi Adityanath government alongside Lucknow's to restructure policing in some important districts, completed two years this month. TOI spoke to police commissioner Alok Singh, who has helmed this journey and overseen the rollout, about the changes that have taken shape and the task that remains ahead. Excerpts
Which are the main crimes that confront the police now as major challenges?
Since Gautam Budh Nagar has a fast-growing real estate and development landscape, property offences and fraud cases are showing a steep growth curve.A number of organised gangs have been operating in this space. They bullied and controlled real estate and associated businesses. Systematic action has been taken against organised mafia. So far, 371 gangsters have been arrested and their illegal property worth Rs 167 crore has been seized and attached. All major crimes in these categories of offences are investigated by the Crime Branch, which is personally supervised by me and the DCP and additional DCP (crime). We hold regular sessions for our investigating officers with trainers coming from CBI, banking institutions, experts in company law, chartered accountancy, etc to help them understand the complexities of such investigations. There has also been a worldwide increase in cybercrime by around 64% due to the prolonged lockdowns, work from home and greater reliance on internet apps. In 2021, the alertness of the cyber cell helped stall and reverse payments worth Rs 1.7 crore made by hundreds of victims of cyber fraud. Many call centres committing international fraud, with ramifications for national security and India's international image, have been busted.
Cybercrimes have become rampant. The redress system can be confusing. People often don't know who to approach and how to pursue their case. How have the police responded to this?
We have been publicising the new cybercrime helpline number - 155260. This is a helpline that tries to stall payments made by a victim as soon as possible. So, all those falling prey to online fraud should report their case to this helpline as soon as possible. They can also report it at their closest police station or at the cyber cell at the office of the police commissioner in Sector 108. We have deployed trained personnel at every police station who can respond within the 'golden hours' and take the first steps to reverse the payments made due to fraud.
Street crimes like snatching, vehicle thefts and carjackings too continue to be regularly reported...
We are constantly working on curbing crimes of this nature. If you study the five-year trend in auto thefts, you will see a decline. Many of the gangs involved in these crimes operate in Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad tri-junction and come to Noida due to the easy connectivity. Joint operations have been undertaken in tandem with other police forces to crack down on criminal hubs. Special beats have been set up and aggressive patrolling initiated in vulnerable to such crimes. A dedicated auto theft team has been formed to track organised gangs. As a result, 60 such gangs have been busted and 806 criminals have been arrested and jailed.
Vehicles have been recovered from as far away as Kashmir and Gujarat. 51% of scooters and bikes and 47% of four-wheelers reported stolen have been recovered.
Women's safety in public places has been a major concern for years. Under the commissionerate, what are the steps that have been taken to address this?
The women's safety wing of the commissionerate has conducted surveys and taken feedback online as well as through 'mahila choupals' to map the areas where women say they don't feel safe. Over 200 such hotspots have been identified, mostly around liquor vends, parks, metro stations, markets, factory areas and poorly lit roads. Our dedicated women's patrolling team - Swayam Siddha - monitors these spots. Women can call U if they sense any danger while on the road. Our response time is the fastest in the state at 6 minutes and 9 seconds. If women are unable to find transport while commuting at night, U vehicles will escort them to their destination.
How do you plan to make the police force in Noida more senior citizen-friendly?
In the past few months, we have begun registration of senior citizens at the police station level, particularly those who are ailing and living alone. Beat constables have been tasked with regularly checking up on the senior citizens registered with us to ensure their well-being. We hope to greatly expand this database to make our outreach impactful on a large scale.
What about traffic? When is the integrated traffic management system (ITMS) being introduced?
It will be in place this year. This will involve installation of high-resolution cameras at 84 strategic points to manage traffic flow as well as identify offenders. We are committed this year to reduce the number of fatalities in road accidents by 50%.
The traffic wing has been undertaking many awareness campaigns to prepare good Samaritans who are aware of helplines like 112, 108 to call in the event of any accident so that lives can be saved. We are identifying and training traffic volunteers from every neighbourhood.
Are the police working on getting more CCTV cameras installed in Noida, especially in crime-prone and accident-prone areas?
Under the first phase of the 'safe city' project, 1,500 new high-resolution CCTV cameras and five drone cameras are to be installed at 450 locations. These locations have been identified by our teams to cover the areas you mentioned, besides places that are poorly lit, among others.
The commissionerate system has been welcomed by residents. But while crime data indicates a downward trend in major offences, there have been instances of cops misbehaving with residents. How do you propose to correct that?
I think the prime reason for a thumbs up from the citizenry is the perceptible change in their dealings with the police and the humanity and compassion demonstrated by our force on the ground. People have acknowledged the promptness and commitment of the police in supporting them through very difficult times like the first and second waves of Covid. The police remained unfazed despite a serious personal risk to health and helped lakhs of people with ration, medicines, supply of oxygen, transport, ambulances, plasma, hospital admissions, etc. Reports of positive response by the police far outnumber the negative ones. The cases of misbehaviour are few and far between and dealt with swiftly and seriously. Cases have been registered and personnel have been dismissed from service in extreme cases of misdemeanor. I have been encouraging officers to start dialogue with different groups of residents like RWAs, industry associations, hawkers, unorganised workers, slum dwellers, etc to understand their challenges and grievances and then come up with customised responses. A number of suggestions have already been taken up. We hope to expand this approach this year.
Some corruption cases have come to light, like the one involving the SWAT team last year that allegedly took bribes from a gang. These tarnish police's image. How are you dealing with this?
My message to the force is clear in the action taken against errant police personnel accused of corruption. In all the cases, the action taken was swift and in consonance with the commissionerate's policy of zero tolerance for corruption. We are also in the process of designing an internal vigilance setup that would act as a watchdog and will act in line with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in complaints of graft in government departments and agencies.