Traditionally at the district level, the
Superintendent of Police (SP) or Senior SP (SSP) maintains law and order by working with the
District Magistrate (DM). Under the Commissioners of Police (CP) system, the state governments may or may not grant certain powers of the executive magistrate to the commissioner, contrary to the Superintendent of Police or Senior SP of a
police district who depends on the district magistrate. For large metropolitan cities, the CP system is generally considered more suitable policing system. The commissioner is assisted by special commissioner, joint commissioner, additional commissioner, deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner of police. The Commissionerates present in
New Delhi,
Chennai,
Madurai,
Coimbatore, and
Kolkata can be considered true Commissionerates as they exercise the powers of the District Magistrate and the Executive Magistrate. The organisational structure of the police commissionerates varies state to state. For instance, the Police Commissioners of
Delhi,
Mumbai and
Kolkata report directly to the state government and not to the
DGP. Similarly, in
Kerala, the Commissioner of Police does not have magisterial powers.
Commissionerates A Police Commissionerate's jurisdiction can consist of several adjoining
districts. The
Hyderabad City Police commissionerate since 1847 AD, established in the erstwhile
Hyderabad State by the
Nizams is the oldest police commissionerate in India. The British India government brought the CP system first to Kolkata and Chennai in 1856, and followed it in Mumbai in 1864.
Organisational structure The police commissionerate is headed by a Commissioner of Police (CP). The post of Commissioner of Police can be held by an IPS officer of the rank SP and above, depending upon the sanction provided by the respective state government (or, in the case of
Delhi, by the
Government of India). The commissioner of police is assisted by special, joint, additional, deputy, and assistant commissioners of police, sanctioned by the respective state government. The organisation consists units like law and order, crimes, administration, armed reserve police, traffic police, special branch, security, etc. For the maintenance of law and order, there are police zones, divisions and sub divisions. Typically divisions are headed by
deputy commissioners of police (DCPs), and sub divisions are headed by
assistant commissioners of police (ACPs).
Hierarchy The
hierarchy of posts in Police Commissionerate system of
Delhi is as given below, Police Commissionerate system in other cities may not have one or more of these posts:- •
Commissioner of Police (CP) i.e. DGP equivalent •
Special Commissioner of Police (Spl.CP) i.e. Addl. DGP equivalent •
Joint Commissioner of Police (Jt. CP) i.e. IG equivalent •
Additional Commissioner of Police (Addl.CP) i.e. DIG equivalent •
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) i.e. SSP or SP equivalent •
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Addl.DCP) i.e. Addl. SP equivalent •
Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) i.e. DSP or ASP equivalent The subordinate police officers' hierarchy in the Police Commissionerate system is the same as in a district police headed by a Senior SP/SP, including ranks such as police inspector, sub-inspector, assistant sub-inspector, head constable, and constable. ==List of commissioners of police==