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Indian state police force

The West Bengal Police is one of the two police forces of the Indian state of West Bengal. The other being the Kolkata Police, which has a separate jurisdiction across Kolkata. The West Bengal Police was reorganized under provisions of the Police Act 1861 during the British Raj. It is headed by an officer designated as the Director General of Police who reports to the State Government through the Home (Police) Department. Shri Sanjay Mukhopadhyay, an IPS officer of the 1989 batch is the DGP of West Bengal Police since 19 March, 2024. The West Bengal Police has jurisdiction concurrent with the twenty two revenue districts of the State (excluding the metropolitan city of Kolkata) which comprises one of the two general police districts of West Bengal under the Police Act 1861. The other general police district consists of the major portions of the metropolitan area of Kolkata, and has a separate police force (Kolkata Police Commissionerate) constituted and administered under the Calcutta Police Act 1866 & Calcutta (Suburban Police) Act 1866. This arrangement, unique in India, was conceived during colonial times when Calcutta was the capital of British India. The city police have been kept independent of the state police force.

Since the 2008 Mumbai attacks the government of India took the decision to strengthen coastal security and several important decisions were taken, launched a multi tier arrangement for protection and maritime security of the country scheme. In April 2011 the government of India sanctioned 14 coastal police stations, surveillance equipment, computer systems, furniture and jetties for the West Bengal's share of the 157.50 km coastline under the Coastal Security Scheme Phase II.

The police administration in the state is divided into three police zones and a Government Railway Police (GRP) Zone, each headed by an Inspector General of Police. Each Zone consists of one or more Ranges headed by an officer designated as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (or Special Inspector General of Police). In all, there are 28 police districts (including four consisting of Government Railway Police districts), each headed by a Superintendent of Police. The three Zones are South Bengal Zone, Western Bengal Zone and North Bengal Zone, and an office of the IGP Railways. Besides, there are some other IGP ranked officers in the following department: Coastal Security, Fire & Emergency Services, Training, Provisioning, Armed Police (AP), Enforcement Bureau (EB), Administration, Law & Orders, Telecommunications, CID, Traffic, WBPRB, SVSPA, CIF, STF, Vigilance Commission etc.

Each Range comprises two or more districts or one district divided into multiple police districts. The Range is headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG). In West Bengal there are 10 ranges. Besides, there are DIG ranked officers in the department of Traffic, Railways, States Crime Records Bureau (SCRB), CID West Bengal, Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), AP Barrackpore, AP Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) Salua, AP North Bengal, AP Durgapur, AP Siliguri, Border, Enforcement Bureau (EB), Intelligence Bureau, Fire Services, Head Quarter (HQ), Police Training Center (PTS), Training, Personnel & Weapon, Provisioning, Telecommunication, WBNVF, Civil Defence etc.

Each Police District is either coterminous with the Revenue district or in the case of Government Railway Police districts, is located within a number of revenue districts. It is headed by a District Superintendent of Police (or simply called Superintendent of Police). Each district comprises two or more Sub Divisions, several Circles and Police Stations. But in recent times, several districts are divided into police districts for better police administration. Each of those police districts are headed by an SP.

Each Sub Division is headed by one Police officer of the rank Deputy Superintendent of Police (members of West Bengal Police Service, a directly recruited officer or one promoted from the ranks) or an Assistant Superintendent of Police (members of Indian Police Service). In West Bengal, the officer who heads a Sub Division is known as SDPO i. e. Sub Divisional Police Officer.

A Circle comprises several Police Stations within a sub division. An Inspector of Police who heads a police circle is the Circle Inspector of Police or CI.

A Police Station is the basic unit of policing, responsible for prevention and detection of crime, maintenance of public order, enforcing law in general as well as for performing protection duties and making security arrangements for the constitutional authorities, government functionaries, representatives of the public in different legislative bodies and local self governments, public figures etc. A Police Station is headed by either a Sub Inspector (lower subordinate rank), mostly in rural areas or an Inspector (an upper subordinate rank), mostly in urban areas. Police outposts are headed by a Sub Inspector or Assistant Sub Inspector. After the year 2009 both ASI and SI have equal investigation power and both serve as duty officers.

The Police Manual of West Bengal Police was compiled and issued during British Raj and is known as the Police Regulations of Bengal(PRB), 1943 and with subsequent modifications and corrections, is the guiding source of internal Police Organization and Administration under its area of responsibility. The WBP is divided into a number of units:

Post 2014 Burdwan blast, which unearthed Bangladesh based militant group Jamaat ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, middle east's terrorist group Islamic State and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence terror module, the need for strengthening the local intelligence gathering mechanism was first felt. Following the incident the state govt has set up a new intelligence agency to counter terrorism, bust terror modules and invigilate suspicious movements in West Bengal and also to foil militant infiltration into the state.

The Civil Police consists of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Counter Insurgency Force (CIF), Enforcement Branch (EB), Intelligence Branch (IB), Traffic Branch, Police Telecommunications, Training Wing, State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) & Police Computer Centre (PCC).

An elite force named Specially Trained Armed Company or STRACO has been created to combat insurgency & terrorism, posted in West Zone to fight Maoist guerrillas. WBP is raising another new "Counter Insurgency" force on the line of Gray Hound Special Force of Andhra Pradesh Police.

West Bengal government created new directorate of the Special Task Force under West Bengal Police. The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal, formed around three years ago, to combat modern urban organized crimes terrorism, organized gangs, illegal arms, ammunition, drugs and fake currency across the state is all set to get a police station of its own and a designated court.

The Swami Vivekananda State Police Academy (SVSPA) is the state level police training institution catering to the training needs of West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police. The Academy conducts basic training for DSP Probationers, Cadet Sub Inspectors of both Armed & Un Armed branches and Recruit Constables for West Bengal Police and also for Warders and Inspectors of Correctional Services, Sub Inspectors and Sergeants of Kolkata Police. The Academy also conducts Pre promotional training for Constables, Asst. SI's and SI's for their promotion to the next rank besides conducting various short in service training courses on different professional issues. SVSPA is well equipped with in house faculty members both for academic indoor training and outdoor training. Besides, a number of eminent faculty members from different disciplines take classes for the training programs. These include academicians, experts from Forensic Science Medicine, scientific officers/experts from Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) & Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), lawyers, judicial officers and senior police officers.

The Eastern Frontier Rifles are an armed police force of the WBP, the purpose of which is to control major law & order problems, communal riots and terrorist attacks. Many contingents of EFR are deployed in various disturbed areas of the State. However, in recent years the effectiveness of this force has been weakened by overuse and prolonged deployment at Police Stations for day to day law & order duties. The headquarters of EFR is at Salua, near Kharagpur.

The specialised force of the CIF was raised by the Government following the worsening situation in the Jungle Mahals. The force was charged with the specific task of curbing presence of the maoists within the state. The force was allowed its own recruiting process so as to select the best men from within the force. The force is headed by an Additional Director General of Police ranked officer.