Junior investigators trained in new techniques in Prakasam

Ongole: The Prakasam district Police Department is enhancing the professionalism in the head constables and assistant sub-inspectors by training them on the investigation techniques and provision of basic services to people.

Though they didn't form a university, the Prakasam police are following the structure of such a model with SP Siddharth Kaushal, who introduced the 'Junior Investigation Officers' concept in the department for the first time in the country, is acting as vice-chancellor, the Mentor-I officers as the professors and Mentor-II officers as the training staff while the HCs and ASIs as the trainees.

SP Siddharth Kaushal launched the Project JIO with 456 HCs and ASIs in the district on October 18, 2019, to address the shortage of the investigation officers in the department. Since then, he conducted a number of specialised training classes to train Junior Investigation Officers (JIOs) on par with senior officers.

The JIOs are investigating every single case as a model case, the crime scene as a classroom and the investigation officer as their professor in thereby transforming the department as a university and receiving accolades from the officials for being a shining example to all other districts.

Being the principal mentor to all officers, the SP shared the best investigative methods with the JIOs in the meetings while reviewing the case progress.

Thanks to the Project JIO, the Tier-I and Tier-II mentors or Mentor-I and Mentor-II officers left their egos and ranks behind and are staying close to the constables and ASIs enhancing their professionalism and boosting their confidence by advising on the investigation from time to time and providing full assistance to them, instilling the Guru and Sishya culture.

In the evaluation programmes to estimate the progress of the cases and the merit of the JIOs, the SP is interacting with the JIOs face to face. He also visited crime scenes to demonstrate on collecting evidence, recording victim's statements, drawing a rough sketch of the crime scene and others.

Similarly, the Mentor-I officers of all circles in the district are also following the SP to examine the cases, clarify the doubts raised by the JIOs, while the Mentor-II officers include them in the investigation and guiding them.

Speaking on the success of the Project JIO, SP Siddharth Kaushal said that earlier, the SI and above rank officers are used to investigate the cases and there is a huge burden on them.

But now, nearly 90 per cent of the cases are being investigated by the JIOs successfully, while the remaining 10 per cent, containing the SC-ST atrocities, special and grave cases, are being investigated by the senior officials allowing them to put more focus and time on them.

He said that the 456 JIOs have registered 15,820 cases so far and completed investigation of 11,998 cases while the remaining 3214 cases are under investigation.

A JIO, HC598, Sd Hussain said that he used to be afraid of registering a case and investigating it on his own earlier, but the training as JIO helped him to reach to the next level in his career and gather the necessary evidence to convict the accused in the court.

He thanked the SP on behalf of all JIOs, for creating a workspace for them and helping to receive recognition as the real police officers in the public and officials, than just being personnel on security and patrolling staff.

Additional DG-Training N Sanjay highly appreciated the SP after knowing the fact that 456 JIOs have registered cases and completed the investigation on their own to provide prompt services to people. He congratulated the SP for yielding good results in the investigation by launching the Project JIO and taking it ahead.