Thiruvananthapuram, May 14 (IANS): There is a shortage of nearly 7,000 police professionals in Kerala, according to the Administrative Reforms Commission report.

At present, Kerala's police force has a strength of 53,222, which means one policeman for 656 people.

Even though this report came out a few years back, fresh recruitment based on the report is yet to be taken up.

Incidentally, the National Crime Records Bureau report has pointed out that in 2022 in Kerala, there were 2,5,858 criminal cases registered and one reason why the probe into cases gets delayed is because of the lack of the desired number of police officials.

However, over the years, the standard reply given by the authorities with regard to the cases getting registered is that unlike many other states, in Kerala, due to the increased social awareness, the tendency to register cases is high.

Very recently, those whose names appeared in the selection list prepared by the Kerala State Public Service Commission to the Kerala Police had staged a protest before the state Secretariat demanding the Pinarayi Vijayan government to either start recruiting from the list of qualified candidates or extend the date of the list, but it failed to happen.