B. Sandhya (Malayalam: ബി. സന്ധ്യ) (born May 25, 1963) is a retired officer of the Indian Police Service and a former Director General of the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, Home Guard, and Civil Defence. She is also known for her literary contributions which have won her a number of awards including the Edasseri Award in 2007. She retired from the service with the rank of Director General of Police on May 31, 2023.
Personal life
Sandhya is born to S. Bharathadas and V. L. Karthyayani Amma at Palai in Kottayam district. She is married to K. Madhukumar, former Controller of Examinations, University of Kerala, and has a daughter named Hyma.
Education
A Master of Science in Zoology from Alphonsa College, Palai. Trained in Human Resources Management from Wollongong University, Australia and passed the PGDBA from Pondicherry University. She earned her PhD from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. Her dissertation was entitled "The Accessibility of Women to the Criminal Justice System and Customer Orientation of Police Personnel Towards Women".
Career
Sandhya started her career as Project Officer at Matsyafed (Kerala State Co-operative Fisheries Federation) from where she joined the Indian Police Service, after passing the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1988. She served as Assistant Superintendent of Police, Shornur, Joint Superintendent of Police, Alathur, Superintendent of Police, CBCID, Kannur, District Superintendent of Police, Kollam and Thrissur, Asst. Inspector General of Police, Headquarters, Thiruvananthapuram, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Crime Investigation, Southern Range, Thiruvananthapuram. Inspector General of Police Central Zone, Ernakulam. From 2013 Sandhya holds the post of Additional Director General of Police.
Police Service
Significant contributions
Convener of the Kerala Police Act (2011) drafting committee. Founding Nodal Officer for the highly successful Community Policing Project of Kerala (Janamaithri Suraksha Project). As Law and Order IG and ADGP, introduced Women Helpline, Pink Patrol and many innovative programmes and maintained Law & Order in an outstanding fashion through professional policing and public trust. Investigated a number of high profile crimes including murders, crimes against women and terrorism successfully. As first Traffic Inspector General of Kerala introduced a number of innovative projects. Managing Editor of the ISSN registered Journal of Kerala Police viz; Janamaithri: A Journal of Democratic Policing. While leading Armed Police Battalions, instrumental in formation of the Commando Wing of Kerala Police and the KATS. Trained the first Women Battalion of Kerala, including Women Commandos. Organized Global Conclave on Community Policing and several seminars/ conferences for the Kerala Police, including the first Police Science Congress, Kerala Police Academy. Worked as Special Officer of the Government of Kerala for the Tribal Areas of Northern Districts. Introduced the system of ‘Certified Trainers’ in Kerala Police. Blended training methodologies are also introduced. Almost all the Police personnel of Kerala (52,876) were given training in 2018 and almost all personnel are given Cyber Training during 2019. System of webinar and online tutorials are introduced to train personnel. Police – academia collaborations have been established with several Universities and a large number of Police personnel (rank agnostic) have passed out on subjects relevant to current day Policing. Research Wing is established at Kerala Police Academy which undertakes several researches to promote evidence based policing. The Research Wing has brought out a book on Floods 2018. Published a number of scholarly articles on Criminal Justice and Policing (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=v8NnFD4AAAAJ&hl=en)