Times News NetworkChandigarh: UT Police has been approved for the President of India’s Police Colour, one of the highest honours bestowed on a police organisation, with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs conveying the President’s approval on Oct 26.In a communication to the Chandigarh chief secretary, the Ministry of Home Affairs said the President had approved the proposal to confer the honour on Chandigarh Police. The letter referred to communications sent by the UT administration on July 14 and Sept 28, 2026.The recognition comes in view of the force’s record in policing, law and order management, modernisation, emergency response and citizen services. Chandigarh Police, reorganised on Nov 1, 1966, has the motto, “We Care for You”.The force has received one gallantry medal, 20 President’s Police Medals for Distinguished Service, 108 medals for Meritorious Service and 52 United Nations medals. It also received the FICCI Smart Policing Award in 2017 for initiatives in child safety, community policing, elderly safety, smart police stations and women’s safety. The force was ranked first nationally for speedy passport verification in 2023-24.The police have managed 60,501 law and order events since 2009, including 2,582 events in 2025, during which no untoward incident was reported in their management, according to the submitted record. These included major public gatherings such as the Rose Festival, National Craft Mela and rallies.Technology-led policing has been another key area. The Police Command and Control Centre was inaugurated on July 30, 2022, and the city has a network of 2,085 CCTV cameras integrated with traffic-management systems, adaptive traffic signals and automatic number-plate recognition. The Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) has been implemented in all police stations, while the e-Beat application is operational in all 16 law-and-order police stations.The force has also established the Centre for Cyber Operations and Police Support (CenCOPS), which supports cybercrime investigation, digital forensics, malware analysis and cyber-threat intelligence. Digital tools such as e-Sakshya and Chitra Khoji are used for electronic evidence and image-based identification.In emergency response, the average response time under the Emergency Response Support System (112) is recorded at four minutes and 33 seconds. Community initiatives include Samavesh Kendras, weekly Samvedna camps for public grievances and the Student Police Cadet Programme, which has enrolled 600 students from 15 schools.
