K. Radhakrishnan (police officer)

Dr.K.Radhakrishnan
Awards	President's medal for "Meritorious Service", Chief Minister's medal for "Outstanding Service", Queen's Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development, 2002, Queen's Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development, 2004, Community Policing Award, 2009.
Police career
Department	Indian Police Service
Rank	Director General of Police

Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, IPS (born 8 July 1957) is an Indian Police Service Officer of the batch of 1983, belonging to the Tamil Nadu Cadre. Currently, he is serving as the Director General of Police of the Civil Supplies, CID department of Tamil Nadu.^[1] Dr. K. Radhakrishnan also holds a PhD from the Department of Criminology from the University of Madras for seminal research on ‘Tactical and Strategic Police Response to Communal Violence: Coimbatore, a case study’, awarded by the University of Madras in October 2009. He received the Queen’s Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development in 2002 and 2004 and is the only officer from all of Commonwealth Nations to have won the distinguished bi-annual award consecutively. In his personal life, he is a voracious reader, a fervent patron of Tamil Literature and an academic at heart.

Education

Growing up in the semi-urban town and municipality of Srivilliputhur, Radhakrishnan was one of the younger children of a family of seven. He attended the Government Higher Secondary School in Ammapatti, Srivilliputhur. He later pursued a Master of Science in Chemistry from Madurai University and graduated in 1979 as a Gold Medalist.^[2] He took up a brief stint in teaching in one of the first schools to be established in Panaikulam (the school is now run by the government under the name Bahurdeen Government Higher Secondary School) while preparing simultaneously for the All India Competitive Civil Services Examination. Later on in his police career, Radhakrishnan was awarded a PhD for seminal research on ‘Tactical and Strategic Police Response to Communal Violence: Coimbatore, a case study’ by the University of Madras in October 2009.^[3]

Police career

Radhakrishnan joined the Indian Police Service in the batch of 1983.^[4] He underwent Police Training as Assistant Superintendent of Police at the National Police Academy (NPA), Hyderabad from 1983-1984. He was later inducted into the para-military training at Indore, Tekhlapur and New Delhi. He also went through army training at Kargil & Leh (Indo-Pak border in Jammu & Kashmir) and Chushul & Sikkim (Indo-China border). Between the two years 1986-1988, he took up position as Assistant Superintendent of Police of the Dindigul District during the course of which he led a raid into one of the illegal training centers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE and seized arms and ammunition worth Rs.20,00,000. Following this, he was immediately promoted to the function of Superintendent of Police of Ramanathapuram district (1988-1990) during which he was involved in arranging accommodation of 1,00,000 Tamil Refugees from Sri Lanka who entered the district after the de-induction of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF). In a dramatic midnight encounter with the LTTE on 18 February 1990, he led the mission that saved thousands of lives of Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) militants and their leader K. Pathmanabha, who were lodged in the Mandapam Refugee Camp.^[5] His further two year stints in the position of Superintendent of Police in the Districts of Tuticorin, Sivagangai, Dharmapuri, Chengalpattu and Vellore for a period of ten years (1988-1997) in six communally sensitive districts of Tamil Nadu yielded desirable results in the maintenance of peace and prevention of communal and caste violence in the regions. During this period he was proven instrumental in the leading to the arrests of two of the assassins of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and LTTE terrorists who escaped from prison in Chennai.^[6] In July 1997, Radhakrishnan was promoted to the function of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in the Trichy Range, which comprised four districts, during which he successfully held against the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army, leading to the arrests of 50 TNLA members and its leader.^[7][8]

In 1998 Radhakrishnan assumed charge as the Commissioner of Police of Coimbatore City right in the aftermath of the Coimbatore Serial Blasts of 1998 which had left the city wrecked economically and emotionally. Until today, the people of Coimbatore are socially indebted to him for the restoration of peace and religious harmony that rehabilitated the city.^[9] In 2002, he was promoted to the role of the Inspector-General of Police in Vigilance & Anti-Corruption, Chennai and in 2006 moved to the department of Law & Order North Zone, Tamil Nadu. In September 2008 he was appointed the Additional Director General of Police Civil Supplies, CID, a role which he resumed in May 2009 after a brief stint as the Commissioner of Police, Chennai City against the background of the Mumbai blasts of 2008 when the threat extended to Chennai as well.^[10] He later resumed as the Additional Director General of Police, Law & Order before moving back to Civil Supplies CID in 2011. Currently he functions as the Director General of Police, Civil Supplies, CID a role he took responsibility from February 2016.^[11]

Promotions

Indian Police Service

Insignia	Rank	Date
	Additional Director-General of Police – ADGP	September 2008
	Inspector-General – IG	2002
	Deputy Inspector-General – DIG	1997
	Superintendent of Police – SP	1988
	Assistant Superintendent of Police – ASP	1986

Positions held

Awards and Honors

In the course of his duty as Superintendent of Police, Vellore District, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan was awarded the Gandhi Adigal Police Medal for eradication of illicit liquor menace in his region. Assuming role as the Commissioner of Police of Coimbatore City in the immediate aftermath of the Serial Blasts of 1998 and in partnership with civil society, Radhakrishnan employed the philosophy of ‘Community Policing’, which roped in the civil society’s participation to fight communalism. This resulted in him being conferred with the ‘Community Policing Award’ in 2002 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Alexandria, VA, United States. Later on he developed a model on ‘Communal Relations Management’ which won him the ‘Queen’s Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development’ in 2004. ^[12] During his stint as the Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Police Training College Chennai, Radhakrishnan worked on a project report that detailed into enhancing the roles of the women police officers, which won him recognition by the Queen’s Award Panel once again. He was awarded the ‘Queen’s Award for Innovation in Police Training and Development’ in 2002. This project was then successfully implemented in the Police Training College, Chennai.^{[13] [14] [15]}

He was awarded the President’s Police Medal in 1999 for “Distinguished Service” during his stint as the Commissioner of Police in Coimbatore, for his efforts towards restoring peace and harmony in the city that was left dilapidated post the blasts.

Personal life

In his personal life, Radhakrishnan is a voracious reader, a fervent patron of Tamil Literature and an academic at heart. Having been disadvantaged in many instances in the educational front during his early years, he has made it his single most important goal to achieve proper educational standards for children in the rural areas. In this principle, he took to himself to convert his primary school into a full-fledged Higher Secondary School that provides free but quality education to the impoverished children in the locality. He acted as a resource person, delivering lectures for the National Police Academy, Tamil Nadu Police Training College, Madras University, Anna University, Annamalai University and Indian Bank Management Academy for Growth & Excellence. He also acts as a consultant for the Bureau of Police Research and Development, New Delhi on Community Policing. ^[16]

References