Southern police chiefs team up to fight cyber fraud and border crime

UPDATE - follow-up to Southern States should strengthen intelligence-sharing, operational coordination: Telangana CM: Police leaders from five southern States, three Union Territories, and central agencies gathered in Hyderabad for the Southern Regional Police Coordination Committee conference.

Action Plan

Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy urged neighbouring regions to build robust cross-border ties and offered to share local tech tools and methods to fight narcotics and cyber offences. State DGP C.V. Anand noted that cyber fraud drains far more money than traditional robberies, adding that the local cyber bureau recovered ₹16.42 crore for victims and processed 96.7% of inter-state portal requests. Officials also discussed moving 1,200 specialized personnel from anti-extremism roles to traffic, road safety, and enforcement duties.

State Initiatives

Karnataka DGP M.A. Saleem shared details of a door-to-door outreach drive that identified roughly 55,000 homes with elderly residents living alone to give them extra protection. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu DGP Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal stated that a specialized safety force for women and children ran 41,915 awareness sessions, tracked down 49 missing women and 87 missing children, stopped 41 child marriages, and helped 453 dropouts return to school over a five-month span. Tamil Nadu also set up an anti-narcotics unit backed by a ₹264 crore budget across 65 units.

Context

Regional police coordination meetings allow law enforcement agencies from neighbouring states to share intelligence and pool resources against criminal networks that operate across state boundaries. Cybercriminals and drug syndicates frequently exploit jurisdictional gaps between different states, making unified regional strategies essential for modern policing.