Citizens’ panels to prevent crimes

Citizens’ panels to prevent crimes
JA

The City Police Commissioner Shankar M Bidari has mooted a novel concept to prevent growing neighbourhood crime in the City. The concept, termed as Citizens’ Committee, will come up at every station.


The committee will comprise 100 selected people belonging to different strata of the society and will meet once in two months.
Unlike such schemes in the past, these citizens’ panels will be of great help to prevent neighbourhood crimes as it will be a permanent feature with standing instruction from the commissioner, according to Bidari.
“I conceived this scheme a few months ago, but I will be able to implement itonly after the BBMP elections. A few previous commissioners attempted such schemes, but they failed as the schemes were publicised in media and nothing happened beyond that. They were successful only for a limited period ”.

E-Beat system:
“I introduced the Electronic beat system for patrolling officers, which is functioning well. This has also received public cooperation. Station House Officers are meeting general public regularly. I am also meeting a cross section of the society during Janata Darshan. We have successfully redressed grievances of the general public pertaining to crime, and day crime in particular. These initiatives have reduced neighbourhood crime considerably. Different officers have been conducting meetings in their areas. This has won the confidence of the public who are coming forward to share information about unlawful activities and suspicious elements”.

Enough force:
“The argument of recruiting more candidates for the department is not vaild, as the City police has sufficient force. The question is more of disciplining the existing force, making it more committed to carry out work assigned and implementing the law without fear or favour. The department has disciplined the staff by rewarding good work and initiating disciplinary action against the erring staff.”

Act for private security agencies:
“The Union Government recently passed the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act which will be implemented soon. The Act makes it mandatory to verify all documents before recruiting a candidate for agency and the employer. The Act has several such provisions which will certainly prevent security guards from indulging in neighbourhood crimes.”

Changes in legal system necessary:
“Easy availability of bails is one of the reasons for increasing crimes.
“Nuclear family system, weakened family relations, failure of parents to imbibe moral values among children, youth attracted to amoral life, rapid urbanisation, human greed to earn quick money, increase in sectarian feelings and disparity in economic status have adversely affected neighbourhood relations, leading to crimes.”