A. Arun IPS, ADGP assumed office as the Commissioner of Police, Greater Chennai Police, on July 8, replacing Sandeep Rai Rathod, IPS.
In his first press conference after taking charge, he stated his priorities for the city.
Stating, “Chennai is not new to me,” he said that his priorities were resolving issues pertaining to law and order, crime prevention measures, traffic problems, control of rowdyism, connivance in the police department, and katta panchayat.
Talking to reporters, he stated, that though incidents of murders had substantially reduced since the year 2022 – 2023, the police will focus on bringing down the numbers further, mainly by controlling rowdyism. “They will be spoken with, in the language they understand,” he stated.
He however refused to comment on the murder of BSP Tamilnadu State-unit President, K.Armstrong, on July 5. His transfer comes a few days after the murder.
Curbs on drugs would also be pertinent, he said and added that he does not believe in bringing new schemes each day, “Everyday regular professional policing is important to bring down crime and the same would be implemented.” He encouraged the police force to follow the same.
This 1998 batch IPS officer, was earlier the ADGP of Law and Order, apart from being the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Anna Nagar and St. Thomas Mount, and the Joint Commissioner of Police and Additional Commissioner of Traffic. During this stint, he has been credited with introducing the cashless e-chalan payment system for traffic violations, which won the Skoch Award (Governance Gold), in 2019. He also introduced the Traffic Regulation Observed Zone’ (TROZ 1) across five junctions in Anna Nagar to automatically observe traffic violations. In the first 24 hours, 90,000 violated vehicle numbers were captured and automatically intimated to the traffic control room.
