The Puducherry Police (French: ''Police de Pondichéry'') is the law enforcement agency for the Union Territory of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: * Puducherry (union territory), a union territory of India ** Pondicherry, capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district, a district of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry t ...

in India.

Origins

The Puducherry Police date back to the period of French colonial rule prior to 1954. Separate Armed and Indigenous (local) police units were maintained at that time. In

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, during the French colonial rule of

Pondicherry Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...

Yanam Yanam (Telugu: ''యానాం'') is a town located in the Yanam district in Puducherry. It has a population of 35,000 and is entirely surrounded by Andhra Pradesh. It was formerly a French colony for nearly 200 years, and, though united ...

Karaikal Karaikal (Help:IPA/English, /kʌdɛkʌl/, french: Karikal Help:IPA/French, /kaʁikal/) is a town of the Indian States and territories of India, Union Territory of Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. Karaikal was sold to the French by t ...

and Mahé, Kepis were worn by two kinds of policemen, the Armed and the Indigenous, differentiated by the color of the kepis they wore. While the law and order forces wore bright red caps, the armed constabulary was conspicuous by its blue kepis. After Indian Independence, the former French colonial territory was integrated into the Union Territory of

and the bright red kepi continues to be the headgear of the constabulary — both for the local and the armed police signifying the cultural and administrative legacies left by the former colonialists. The modern force still retains the French

kepi The kepi ( ) is a cap with a flat circular top and a peak, or visor. In English, the term is a loanword of french: képi, itself a re-spelled version of the gsw, Käppi, a diminutive form of , meaning "cap". In Europe, this headgear is most ...

as a distinctive feature of its uniform.

Organizational structure

The Puducherry Police come under the direct control of the

Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. The force is headed by the

Director General of Police Director general of police (DGP) is a rank in the Indian Police Service, held by the highest ranking police officer in a State or a Union Territory of India, typically heading the state or the UT police force. The DGP is appointed by the cab ...

(DGP). As of 2013, the Puducherry Police had around 4000 personnel, of whom 150 were women. The force plans to induct more women officers to have one woman officer at every

police station A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, ...

Jurisdiction

The Puducherry Police has jurisdiction over

, and Mahé.

Duties

The Puducherry Police coordinates with other law enforcement agencies across the country to catch offenders and criminals. The force has

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

s in Kalapet,

and

. It has plans to open an

open prison An open prison (open jail) is any jail in which the prisoners are trusted to complete sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. Prisoners may be permitted to take up employment w ...

. It is the only force having a separate traffic unit with investigation power in India.

References

External links

{{Puducherry Government of Puducherry State law enforcement agencies of India Government agencies with year of establishment missing