The city’s police control rooms will try and overcome the obstacle of distance by spreading out wherever the situation demands it.

The six existing control rooms will be augmented with mobile, hi-tech units that can act as control rooms at the site of any terror strike or law-and-order disruption.

Called ‘field command centres’, these are part of the initiatives planned after 26/11 to ensure a coordinated response to any emergency. The project entails mobile vans fitted with state-of-the-art technology, police sources said.

“It has been felt that a stationary control room does not get the clearest impression of a situation developing in a remote part of the city. The control room coordinating the police response acts on messages relayed over wireless. Sometimes clarity is lost due to remoteness,” said a senior police officer.

As of now, the city police have a main control room at their headquarters in Crawford Market, besides five regional control rooms for the South, Central, West, East, and North police regions. The main control room serves as a crisis command centre during a terrorist attack, and it did during 26/11. The police responses at Leopold Café, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Hotel, Oberoi-Trident, Nariman House and Cama Hospital were coordinated from the main control room.

“After the attacks, the police think-tank drew up a holistic approach to counter future attacks. One of the initiatives planned was the introduction of field command centres, which can be set up on site and coordinate the police response,” said the officer.

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