In an interesting move, Dadwal has asked Delhi Police officers to ask beat constables to gather intelligence and be the department's “eyes and ears” in areas on their beat.

“A beat constable must know about the number of people in his beat, about antisocial elements, cyber cafes and so forth,” Dadwal said at the Delhi Police's annual conference, held at the India Habitat Centre on Wednesday. “They should be able to make vendors and locals a source of information.”

The idea, essentially, is to make the constables multi-task cops who are proactive, rather than react after a crime has occurred.

He also favours upgrading skills of investigating officers and early disposal of grievances.

“I am not going to tolerate corruption and indiscipline in the department,” Dadwal said, drawing silence in the conference room. And police officials say he proved his tough-taskmaster talk with action in just six months since taking charge: he has already given marching orders to 20 Station House Officers (SHOs). Reason: inefficiency, not following orders, and corruption charges.

Among the SHOs transferred and suspended in the past few months are RK Puram SHO R K Tyagi (for not using 'Chitha Munshi' at the police station properly), Sarojini Nagar SHO S S Rana (inefficiency), Geeta Colony SHO Hari Darshan Dahiya (for delay in lodging FIR), Mukharjee Nagar's B Maan (not lodging FIR), and SHO O P Budhwar for non-compliance of orders. Senior officers have also been asked to give equal importance to every complainant and case.

Dadwal, 56, a 1974-batch IPS, said: “I don't want to hear from any ACP that he doesn't know something just because he had returned from patrolling. If an officer is not competent, then he must leave the job.”