A single command-and-control room in Hyderabad could become the backbone of a pan-South India crime-fighting network — that was the bold proposition Chief Minister Revanth Anumula laid before police chiefs of five southern states and two union territories on Friday, 23 October 2026. Inaugurating the South Region Police Coordination Committee (SRPCC) conference at Hyderabad's Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), he called on every southern state to move beyond its own borders and build a collective safety architecture the region has never attempted before.

Why one state's war on crime can never be enough

The argument CM Revanth pressed hardest was structural: no state, however well-resourced, can plug the gaps that open at its own border. Cyber fraud syndicates, narcotics pipelines, and cross-state trafficking networks operate precisely in those gaps. 'It is not possible for states to become crime-free using only their own resources and efforts,' he told the gathering. 'Coordination among the police departments of all states is absolutely essential.'

The answer he offered was Telangana's own ICCC — an integrated surveillance and response hub in Hyderabad — as a shared platform the state is 'ready to coordinate' with its neighbours. The offer signals Telangana's ambition to anchor the region's technology-driven policing model, inviting Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, and Lakshadweep into a common operational framework.

Telangana's policing overhaul — the template on the table

Hyderabad's metropolitan policing was split into three separate commissionerates — Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and the newly carved Malkajgiri — to sharpen geographic accountability. Alongside that restructuring, three specialised units were stood up: HYDRAA for protecting and restoring water bodies and public assets; EAGLE for narcotics enforcement, which the Union Government reportedly scored above 80 per cent in performance assessment; and TG-SAFE, a new inter-departmental unit modelled on the lines of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to curb food adulteration and strengthen drug regulation.

The Chief Minister also pointed to Telangana Cyber Security Bureau as a benchmark: the state, he said, has set new standards in recovering money lost by cyber-crime victims. He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had specifically cited Telangana's cyber-crime performance during a PRAGATI review, and that the Union Home Minister had publicly commended Telangana Police for effectively eliminating Naxal violence from the state — two external validations the Chief Minister used to strengthen his case for Telangana as a model worth replicating.

Transgender traffic assistants, a police school, and ex-gratia up to ₹2 crore

CM Revanth used the platform to highlight welfare and inclusion milestones as well. Telangana became the first state in the country to appoint transgender persons as traffic assistants in the Hyderabad Traffic Police, he said. On officer welfare, he framed government spending on police as an 'investment in building a better society' rather than a cost — and backed that framing with numbers: families of personnel killed in the line of duty receive ex-gratia ranging from a minimum of ₹1 crore to a maximum of ₹2 crore, scaled by rank from constable to IPS officer, along with a residential plot and a compassionate appointment for one eligible family member.

To serve children of police personnel across all ranks — from Home Guards to the DGP — the government established the Young India Police School in Hyderabad, benchmarked against the country's top Sainik schools.

Who was in the room — and what comes next

The SRPCC summit brought together a high-powered roster: Telangana DGP CV Anand, Karnataka DGP Dr M A Saleem, Tamil Nadu DGP Mahesh, Puducherry DGP Shalini Singh, Lakshadweep ADG B Shankar Jaiswal, Kerala IG Ajeeta Begum, and Andhra Pradesh IGP Ravi Krishna. Also present were the directors of EAGLE, TG Cyber Bureau, TG Police Academy, CID Telangana, and the Hyderabad City Police Commissioner.

CM Revanth asked delegates to move beyond discussion and draft a 'strong action plan' — including robust cross-border coordination systems between state police headquarters — before the conference concludes. The real test of the SRPCC summit will be whether those cross-border protocols turn into shared databases, joint task forces, or a formal interoperability agreement between the ICCC and its counterparts in neighbouring states.

Policing reform is rarely glamorous, but a unified southern security grid — if it materialises — would be the most consequential regional law-enforcement architecture India has built outside the federal intelligence apparatus. The summit has set the ambition; the action plan will reveal the substance.