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| Sunday, 24 November 2002 |
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Security |  |
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Kelaniya Police force turn elite crime busters by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE With a view to arrest the rising tide of violent robberies and to apprehend the culprits in response to public calls, the Kelaniya police Division will commission the deployment of six police patrol cars that would respond to any emergency situations in the area, SSP, Kelaniya Jagath Abeysirigunewardena told the Sunday Observer. The areas which comes under the Kelaniya police division will be Wattala, Peliyagoda, Kandana, Ja-Ela, Ragama and kelaniya, and the patrol cars attached to some of these police stations will be in touch with the Command Control Room at Peliyagoda 24 hours of the day. The move comes in the wake of IGP, T.E. Anandaraja's message to divisional police heads to give priority to prevention of crime in their respective areas. Meanwhile, the Interior Minister, John Amaratunga opened last week the new Western Province (North) Traffic and Crime Divisional offices in Peliyagoda. All police stations coming under the wing of DIG, Western province North will include a special striking unit, a homicide unit, and a vice squad. The striking unit will be manned by police motor cyclists who will rush to any trouble spots during exigencies. It is learnt that the Central Vice Squad in Panadura which covered the entire island have been disbanded and, instead, similar divisional vice squads have been set up under respective DIG's in the provinces. Special crime cases in the Western province North that needs special investigation will be referred to the divisional office by the DIG concerned. The unit will be manned by 1 SP, 1 ASP, 6 IPs and 50 policemen. SSP, Abeysirigunawardena said after the formation of the Divisional Crime unit, a 65% drop in crime cases have been observed in the Western Province (North). The Traffic Division in the Western Province North will function under a different SSP and policemen trained in traffic.According to Police headquarters there is a slight drop in the incidence of grave crime cases reported during the first six months of this year in comparison to last year. A marginal increase in certain types of crimes such as robbery, arson, grievous hurt, sexual offenses, burglary and theft during the corresponding period. The number of homicides cases which was 691 during the first six months of 2001 came down to 626 during the corresponding period in 2002. Instances of hurt with knife reduced from 2608 to 2491, Rape from 574 to 545 and abductions from 373 to 324, instances of sexual abuse from 143 to 130, extortion from 48 to 45, cruelty to children and child abuse from 147 to 121.Instances of burglary and theft which was 6809 during first six months of 2001 increased to 6875 during the first six months of 2002. Arson increased from 387 to 469, causing grievous hurt from 838 to 885, robberies from 2361 to 2624, burglary and theft 6809 to 6875. |
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