Bengaluru: Heightened security surveillance at police headquarters is nothing short of blatant discrimination. If one is not an officer but an ordinary visitor to the police headquarters on Nrupathunga Road, then he should be prepared for multiple levels of checks, including frisking.
One cannot enter or exit the office from the front door, flaunting the red vinyl floor mats draping the staircase which has been ‘reserved’ for officers and VIPs. The armed commandos at the entrance tell you to go down to the basement to enter or exit the building. Even if the visitor has a confirmed appointment with an officer, he will be stopped at the entry and ushered inside the sentry’s cubicle, where he has to go past the constables.
One of them calls on the intercom to verify with the officer’s secretary if the visitor should be allowed inside before making the entry in the visitors’ record book. Another constable will then to take you to a corner inside the cubicle, where an iron cot and chair are kept for the night sentry to frisk you. For ladies there is a woman constable in waiting. To enter the main building inside the campus, the visitor will have to go to the basement to get his baggage scanned before he goes up to meet the officer.
After the visit is over, he is told to go down to the basement to leave the premises. Security drills at the police chief's office have been ad hoc, and varied from one chief to the other. During the time of the then DG&IGP Ajay Singh, visitors had to go past the sentry and sign the visitors' log book.
“They were given entry coupons but there was no restriction on the entry and exit routes. The visitor's entry in the record book is required for security purposes but the rest of the protocol is unnecessary and demeaning. There are several complaints from the visitors,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.
