Police must adapt to new-age crimes, says Chief Minister

Police need to be upgraded regularly to counter the growing menace of cybercrime and narcotic drugs, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said while participating in the Telangana Police Retreat 2026 in Hyderabad on Monday (March 9).

CM Revanth Reddy said the government would constitute a committee headed by Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao to examine issues raised by the police department and suggest measures to strengthen the system. The committee will review proposals related to cybercrime, narcotics and recruitment and submit recommendations to the government.

Addressing senior officers, the Chief Minister said the police were facing two kinds of challenges. One was technical, which could be addressed by providing adequate resources and technology, while the other was adaptive, which required a deeper understanding and changes in approach.

Referring to the increasing instances of cybercrime, he said the police department should upgrade technology and recruit technical experts to handle complex cases. He added that crime could not be effectively controlled unless the existing staff were regularly upgraded and trained.

The CM also advised the police not to function in an automatic mode and to continuously adapt to changing circumstances, noting that citizens usually approached the police first when faced with problems.

He said earlier challenges such as terrorism and extremism were addressed by creating specialised forces such as the OCTOPUS and the Greyhounds, and similar institutional responses were required as the nature of crime continued to evolve. He also stressed the need for rationalising manpower and moving towards population-based policing.s

The Chief Minister said maintaining law and order was crucial for attracting investments to the State. He referred to the government’s Telangana Rising 2047 policy framework, which aims to avoid policy paralysis and promote long term development. The government is also planning to develop the CURE region covering more than 2,100 km around the Outer Ring Road and attract major investments, with the broader goal of building a three trillion US dollar economy by 2047.

Mr. Reddy also pointed to challenges faced by major cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, including air pollution, traffic congestion and urban flooding, and said Hyderabad should learn from these experiences while planning its future growth.

He assured the police department that the government was prepared to provide adequate funds to strengthen the policing system and said postings would also be linked to performance. He also suggested that the Police Retreat be organised every year in December and said the government would allocate funds for the event accordingly.