The Hindu : Bid to make cops people-friendly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

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Bid to make cops people-friendly

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JAN. 6. The New Year resolution of the West Delhi police is to teach their personnel some good manners with a view to ensuring a positive shift in their mind-set for a better public image.

Speaking at the annual Press conference here, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Delhi), Deependra Pathak, said several measures would be taken this year to enhance the sense of security and create confidence among the public in the police.

Pointing out the insolence prevailing among police personnel -- a major bottleneck in bridging the communication gap between them and the aggrieved citizens -- Mr. Pathak said training programmes would be introduced to improve their communication skills. These courses would be aimed at inculcating politeness in police personnel so that they interact with the public in a better way. "This would encourage the affected people to get their complaint registered more freely.''

Mr. Pathak said surprise checks would be carried out at various police stations to monitor the behaviour of police personnel with aggrieved parties.

Also, the police would give more emphasis to petty offences like unauthorised parking, encroachment, unwanted loitering, loudspeaker menace and other problems, which affect the public at large. This would be done with the optimum and suitable use of various provisions of the Delhi Police Act.

``The Area Policing Programme is already in place. This scheme includes implementation of element of surprise to nab criminals, decentralisation of force in order to enhance their efficiency and increased public participation in maintenance of the law and order and check crime in the district,'' said Mr. Pathak.

He added that special attention would be paid to crime against women and more self-defence courses would be organised in educational institutions to instil confidence in girls.

While reviewing the last year's performance, Mr. Pathak said apart from an increase in cases of hurt and auto-theft, there was a considerable decline in other incidents of crime in the district. As per the statistics, the cases of molestation of women reduced from 64 to 36; kidnapping from 143 to 121; and cases of rape from 49 to 43.

However, there was an increase in the registration of cases under the Excise, Arms and Gambling Act, suggesting that harsh measures were taken to curb these menace. Over 90 cases under Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act were registered this year, as compared to 41 last year.

The district police came down heavily on criminals through preventive arrests. There were 24,200 arrests under 65 DP Act, as compared to 5,511 last year. Under other sections of the Cr.PC and the DP Acts, the police arrested over 9,500 people, compared to around 6,700 the previous year.

Mr. Pathak suggested that certain provisions pertaining to bailable offences against women, like Sections 354 and 509, should be made non-bailable for their effective use.

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