Now, 8-hour shifts for police in control room

For the first time in the recent history of the Mumbai police, an eight-hour duty schedule has been implemented for the staff at the main control room at Crawford Market.

For the first time in the recent history of the Mumbai police, an eight-hour duty schedule has been implemented for the staff at the main control room at Crawford Market. A week ago, the average duty schedule for control room staff, like the rest of the force, was 12 hours or more.

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Interestingly, the pilot project to achieve the new objective – an eight-hour schedule for the entire force – did not require inputs from any manpower management consultant. Just a few adjustments will soon make the long-cherished dream of every policeman in the Mumbai police a reality.

“In fact, the task was achieved in just two days,” Mumbai police spokesperson Rajkumar Vhatkar told HT on Tuesday.

Elaborating, Vhatkar said staff at the main control room work on a 24x7 schedule as it is regarded as the nerve centre of the city police, in so far as the assimilation and dissemination of information is concerned. Likewise, the staff here used to work in two 12-hour shifts. “At any given time, a minimum of 60 operational staff is required in the control room.

Though we had more staff (more than 60) for each shift, we did not have the manpower to divide them into three shifts,” Vhatkar said.

To make up for the additional manpower, Vhatkar said, it was decided to pull in manpower from the Mumbai police reserve force (Local Arms (LA) department). “We pulled in 33% additional staff and increased the total staff strength to a little more than the desired number of 180,” he added.

The present move is aimed at increasing the efficiency of the staff by providing them the required rest. The control room job is considered to be one of the most taxing in the police department.

While lauding the Mumbai police’s effort, former Maharashtra DGP, Dr PS Pasricha, said a similar duty schedule for the field staff would be difficult to achieve.