According to police records, there are 2,642 police personnel (station officers, sub inspectors, head constables and constables) posted in the city against the sanctioned capacity of 3,528 personnel (see box). Interestingly, the sanction was drawn up over 25 years ago, when the population of the city was approximately 10 lakh.

Sanctioned by Police Headquarters, Allahabad, there has been no review since then. In the last 25 years, over a dozen new police stations have been established but the number of the personnel has not been increased.

Senior officers also admitted the strength of the police force does affect policing and law and order. “Approximately 800 of the available strength are mostly on VIP, protocol, office or miscellaneous duties, further decreasing man power. With effective deployment reduced to nearly 2,000, it definitely affects the visibility of the police,” said Akhil Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow. He, however, hopes that with the government’s decision to provide 2,500 Home Guards, the situation may improve to some extent. “They will be of help to us. They are also being trained like police constables,” Kumar added.

An ever-increasing number of FIRs and subsequent investigations are also eating into the efficiency of police personnel. According to rough estimates by the city police, they are investigating approximately 800 cases and on an average, four cases are registered every day in the 37 police stations of the city.

“Take the example of Hazratganj police station, which has about 250 investigations in progress. Also, the investigation officer (IO) of any case can only be an SI. If there are six SIs in Hazratganj, each is investigating around 40 cases, besides routine policing,” said an official with the statistics department of the Police Office.

Head constables, who have been promoted to the rank of SI, carry out the investigation of petty crimes, he added.