`Hello Neighbour' project will be revived: police

`Hello Neighbour' project will be revived: police
The Hindu

Beat policemen will meet people and help them know their neighbours better, Police Commissioner tells K. Satyamurty

A GROWING city with five million people, excluding those in the far suburbs and the four to five lakh floating population a day, means a difficult job for the city police, which has a limited strength.

If the crime graph is growing or at least not coming down, this is one among the reasons. The police have realised this. What they are now doing is to revive the "Hello Neighbour" programme, which lay dormant for many years.

"The idea is that police constables don't just walk the beat. They call at homes and actually meet the people and get to know them, cultivate them in a friendly manner.

"And help them get to know their own neighbours better,'' says the city Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh.

The initiative evolved out of a series of meetings with police personnel at all levels and with the citizens.

Benefits

Helping residents become better neighbours has many benefits. If you are going on vacation for a long period, you can ask the neighbour to keep a watch on your home. And do the same thing for them.

The police too benefit; they come to know about any new residents and also, if any unlawful activities are taking place in the area.

Most residents feel proud about their neighbourhood and are only too willing to inform about anything that disturb the peace or bring the locality a bad reputation.

People also feel free to discuss with the policemen whom they regularly see about any local problems, including streetlights that do not function or bikes and car that over speed through the area late at night.

"All these bits of information can provide us with valuable intelligence. We may not know till it is too late that a particular house is used for illegal activities but the immediate neighbours will,'' explains Mr. Ajai Kumar Singh.

The police will also encourage residents to cultivate a "live and let live" attitude among neighbours. Help them minimise differences of faith, caste and gender and instead start feeling "he or she may be different but is part of my neighbourhood and has the right to live in peace here."

The police feel confident about this because Bangalore is known for communal harmony, barring a few aberrations.

The police have now started distributing pamphlets explaining how public cooperation is needed to make the "Hello Neighbour" project work. At a later stage, residents will be given numbers to contact if they want to provide any information to the police.

"We are keen that the police should be close to the people and this initiative will build confidence among the people about what the police can do for them... the police themselves will feel they are closer to the people they are to protect,'' says the Police Commissioner.