Karnataka Government Considers Splitting Bengaluru City Police Into Multiple Units

The Karnataka government is considering a proposal to split the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate into two or three separate units to manage the rapidly expanding city. Home Minister Priyank Kharge confirmed that the government is currently studying the pros and cons of the restructuring before presenting a formal proposal to the Chief Minister.

The discussion to split the police force comes less than a year after the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was divided into five city corporations. Currently, the Bengaluru City Police Commissionerate is considered highly unwieldy, overseeing a population of over 1.5 crore and spanning 186 police stations, which includes 115 law and order stations and 53 traffic stations. Nearly 30 IPS officers currently report to a single Police Commissioner.

Home Minister Priyank Kharge stated that an earlier proposal to split the commissionerate was not acted upon, but the idea resurfaced during the formation of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) last year. Kharge emphasized that no final decision has been taken yet.

As Bengaluru has expanded, urbanized areas have continuously been added to the commissionerate. Over the last two years, at least six stations have been added, causing law and order divisions to increase from eight to 11, and traffic divisions to grow from two to four. Additionally, there are 15 law and order stations in the adjoining Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru South district police units that are highly urbanized but still governed under rural units.

Supporters of the split argue that a single commissioner cannot adequately focus on all areas of the vast territory. One proposal suggests retaining the core city as the Bengaluru City Police and reorganizing the suburbs, including urbanized stations in Bengaluru Rural and Bengaluru South, into two new commissionerates.

However, some senior police officers oppose the split, arguing that a unified command is essential for effective policing. They suggest an alternative model similar to the GBA, where five Joint Commissioners would oversee divisions under an Additional Commissioner, maintaining a single top command.

If the commissionerate is split, the Bengaluru Traffic Police and the Central Crime Branch (CCB) are unlikely to be divided and would likely report directly to the head of the Police Force. Currently, Bengaluru remains the only major metro city in India—unlike Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and Chennai—that has not organized its suburban areas into multiple police commissionerates.