Police officers will visit colleges under their jurisdiction and speak to students, security staff, and the administration to spread awareness about crime prevention, especially crimes against women, city police commissioner Manoj Verma said on Wednesday.

“The team will comprise men and women officers, and they will visit colleges at regular intervals to interact with students and the college administration to spread awareness on how to prevent crime and alert the police at the earliest,” Verma told The Telegraph.

“The security guards or the security agencies will be counselled about what to do and how to reach out to the police to report a crime. If the security guard at South Calcutta Law College had reached out to the police promptly, the crime could have been prevented. The police station is barely 500m away from the college,” he added.

A note from Verma detailing all the points that the police teams visiting colleges would have to cover during their sessions has been sent to the deputy commissioners of police of all Kolkata Police divisions, a senior officer said.

The note states that security guards at colleges will have the contact number of a senior officer of the nearest police station, and officers of the police station under whose jurisdiction the college is located will regularly interact with the guards.

“If there is awareness among students, security guards and the college administration, we can prevent such crimes,” Verma said, referring to the alleged gang rape of a law student at South Calcutta Law College.

“The visiting teams will hold counselling sessions and spread the word about types of crime, the penal provisions and tell them how to inform the police at the earliest.”

Senior officers said the note from the top cop to deputy commissioners came a few days after the 24-year-old student was allegedly gang-raped on the evening of June 25.

The police have arrested four men — prime accused Monojit Mishra, 31, students Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19, and college security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55, who allegedly allowed his room to be used for the crime and failed to report it.

“The interaction with security guards is meant to make them understand their responsibilities and how to report a crime to college authorities and the police at the earliest,” Verma said.

“The police teams will also discuss the installation of CCTVs on college campuses and explain to the authorities several key points, including the areas that must be brought under coverage, how to store the CCTV feeds and how to ensure their retrieval,” he explained.

Sources said the note from the top cop specifies that the college authorities will inform the police if someone enters the premises forcibly or illegally and is found involved in any illegal activity.

The visiting teams will spell out to students the legal provisions of different crimes, and officers of respective police stations will remain continuously updated about developments in the institutions.