Bengaluru: The city police is virtually working in the dark, without a strong intelligence network to help it deal with crime and unrest.

The intelligence department, which had several units specializing in politics, trade unions, communal trouble, and terror-related activities in the city, has dismantled most of them over the past eight years and drafted their officers to other jobs.

As a result the 450 strong intelligence network that the city had when its population was less than 40 lakh, has now been reduced to a mere 200-member unit when its population has doubled.

‘‘The dismantling started when Mr Neelam Achyuth Rao was in charge. When Mr Raghavendra Auradkar was in the chair, he also transferred many intelligence officers. Now, the department is virtually empty,’’ say sources.

Sadly, the state and city intelligence units have stopped working on the lines of the Intelligence Bureau of the Union home ministry. ‘‘No daily briefings or meetings take place between lower rung officers. The postmen, electric meter readers and many such people are informants , but the police has virtually stopped interacting with them as well,’’ add sources.