The human side of institutions

An institution is experienced by most people only at its edges — a counter, a phone line, a session, a visit. This page is about those edges: how, under this command, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Police Commissionerate has widened the ways a citizen can reach it, and what is documented about the result.

Vinoy Kumar Choubey walking through a busy market street on a field inspection with senior police officers. — On the ground — a field inspection with senior officers

Presence

Policing where people actually are

Pimpri-Chinchwad is a jurisdiction of movement. Manufacturing shifts at Chakan and Talegaon Dabhade, the daily tide of the Hinjawadi information-technology corridor, construction labour, migration, market streets and festival crowds — the population the force serves at nine in the morning is not the population it serves at nine at night.

That shapes what presence means. Reporting on the tenure records a considerable expansion of the physical footprint: four new police stations at Kalewadi, Bavdhan, Sant Tukaram Nagar and Dapodi were inaugurated, and by 2026 the commissionerate had grown to twenty-five police stations across eight divisions and four zones. A further five — at Pirangut, Jambe, Pimple Saudagar, Moshi and Dehu Gaon — have been proposed to the Director General of Police.

Around 5,000 CCTV cameras were reported deployed across the city over the two-year period, and specialised units including an Anti-Narcotics Cell and a dog squad were established.

Sources: Punekar News and Indian Masterminds, 17 December 2024; The Free Press Journal, 4 April 2026.

Access

Four ways the force has made itself reachable

01 — SEPTEMBER 2024

The virtual town hall

On 4 September 2024 the Commissioner took questions from residents on X, under the hashtag #VirtualTownHall_CPPCCity. The session was extended past two hours because of the volume of participation. Residents raised child safety near schools, requests for improved CCTV surveillance and background checks on staff, traffic congestion and cyber fraud. Answers were given with figures rather than assurances.

The Free Press Journal and Punekar News, 5 September 2024.

02 — MARCH 2025

Virtual Town Hall 2.0

A second edition was held on Wednesday 26 March 2025, between four and five in the afternoon. Questions submitted publicly on X addressed the steps being taken to change how the department works and how its processes could be revised to improve the experience of citizens dealing with it.

Punekar News and The Free Press Journal, March 2025.

03 — MARCH 2026

Meet the Police Commissioner

From Monday 10 March 2026 the commissionerate began holding a weekly open session at Shivneri Hall, in the Police Commissioner’s Office at Premlok Park, Chinchwad. Citizens may meet the Commissioner and senior officers directly — with complaints, suggestions or expectations — without an appointment. Seventy-six people attended the first sitting.

The Free Press Journal, 11 March 2026.

04 — JULY 2026

Drug-Free Pimpri Chinchwad

On 28 July 2026, between eleven in the morning and half past twelve, the commissionerate held a virtual town hall on X dedicated to building a drug-free city. Around 45,000 people took part across 819 groups — the largest documented public participation in one of these sessions.

Pune Pulse and PuneNow, July 2026.

Duty of Care

Children, students and the safety of the vulnerable

Asked at the September 2024 town hall about safety in and around schools, the commissionerate set out a specific programme rather than a general reassurance: closed-circuit cameras in all schools, mandatory police verification of school staff, anonymous complaint boxes, and Student Safety Committees. A meeting was convened with school trustees and principals. Training on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act was among the measures reported.

The same session addressed the position of senior citizens, people with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ residents — groups for whom an approach to the police can carry additional difficulty. Reporting notes that not every proposal raised was answered within the time available, which is itself a fair record of an open session held under a clock.

On 9 March 2026, marking International Women’s Day, the Anti-Narcotics Cell conducted an awareness programme at Pratibha College in Chinchwad on the role of women in building a drug-free society, attended by roughly 150 to 200 students, teachers and guests. It was held on the Commissioner’s direction.

The measures that reach children and students are the ones least visible in crime statistics and most visible in whether a family feels able to call.

Sources: The Free Press Journal and Punekar News, 5 September 2024; The Free Press Journal, March 2026.

Vinoy Kumar Choubey speaking at a microphone during a public briefing, his name plate visible on the uniform. — Addressing a public briefing

Vinoy Kumar Choubey at his office desk in service uniform. — At the Police Commissioner’s office, Pimpri-Chinchwad

The Compact

What accessibility is for

Public confidence in a police force is not a sentiment; it is a behaviour. It shows up as whether a person reports a fraud, gives a statement, calls a helpline, or tells an officer what they saw. A force that is difficult to reach loses that information, and loses it precisely in the cases — cyber fraud, offences against children, narcotics — where early reporting decides the outcome.

Seen that way, the town halls and the weekly open sessions are not public relations. They are an attempt to keep the reporting channel open. The 45,000 participants recorded in July 2026, and the 76 people who came to the first Monday session in March, are the measure of it that exists.

A note on what is not here: no citizen testimonial appears on this website. Where individual accounts have not been verified, none have been written.

Cyber fraud may be reported at cybercrime.gov.in or on the national toll-free helpline 1930.
Police assistance in Maharashtra is reached on 112.

View Documented Work