JK Tripathy of Trichy police challenged and changed deeply entrenched mindsets of the police deriving power from the constitution to deriving power from the people. In the process he also changed the perception of the police as extortionist to friendly neighborhood beat officer. Today crime rates have dropped drastically, and religious violence has all but disappeared. Police constables or beat officers are invited to marriages, called to settle disputes, teach children in the evenings and have generally become valued and leading citizens of the community.

He overcame challenges in mindset – moving from drawing power from the constitution to drawing power from the people, overcame challenges of dependency in the force and unleashed initiative at the grass roots level, and has actually created a sustainable initiative that is now being adopted across the state – it began in Trichy, and is now being implemented in Tamil Nadu’s other major cities – Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai.