Hyderabad: Property offenders under scanner
Hyderabad: With summer vacations starting, police teams tracking gangs involved in property offenders are maintaining both technical and physical surveillance. A trend seen in the recent past was an increase in ‘vacation thefts’ during the summer months when families leave for their native places or go on vacation trips.
“Knowing well that many houses will be locked, burglars try to make the most of the situation. To counter their plans, we start monitoring their movements and try to prevent them from committing offences,” a senior official of the Hyderabad Detective Department said. The City Police teams including the Central Crime Station, Task Force and local police have a database of all property offenders who got involved in previous cases.
“The database is constantly updated by CCRB officials from time to time. The data includes their family history, place of stay, friends and acquaintances, habits, professional associates, fingerprints and photos,” the official said.
On interstate gangs from other States who frequent the city during vacations, police officials are seeking the help of their counterparts in those States. “We are in constant touch with the police in other States. Through coordinated efforts, we are preventing such gangs from operating here. So far, the movement of any interstate gang has not been noticed in Hyderabad or the surroundings,” the official claimed.
The police are also maintaining technical surveillance of the gang members. “With the phone numbers, we keep a check on their movement. However, the gangs are smart enough and many have stopped carrying mobile phones or sometimes buy new phones using other identities,” the police said.
The police has also asked citizens to take all precautions to prevent burglaries. The public has been requested to install CCTV cameras in their houses and to connect the same to their mobile phones to keep an eye on the house when they are out of station.
All Station House Officers have asked Blue Colts teams and police patrol vehicles to observe the movement of any suspicious persons in localities and to conduct frequent vehicle checkings.
