Rawalpindi, 28th January, 2019: An information request under Punjab Transparency and Right to Information was filed by a female citizen Aneeqa Ibrahim to City Police Office inquiring the statistics of the registered cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping, honor killing and child abuse. The office of City Police Officer responded to a citizens that 473 robbery, 281 kidnapping, 148 murder, 3 honor killing and 15 child abuse cases registered in 6 months starting from July 01, 2018 to January 15, 2019. She said that the purpose of seeking information was to check the performance of Rawalpindi police. Syed Kausar Abbas, Director of Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) said that police has given a good gesture by sharing information with the public but there is a need to reduce the crime ration in the district by engaging local communities. The community policing can help the government and the police to reduce the crime and also to improve the image of the police in the public.
The ratio of crime increasing rapid in Rawalpindi raised a question on the performance of the Rawalpindi police to provide the security to the citizens’, he added. There is a dire need to build the capacity of police on dealing the public in a decent way and politely to improve its image and trust in the community. The government needs to make a strategy to overhaul the police system and bring new laws to make them accountable to citizens and relevant authorities and as well as to avoid any violence from the police in future. The District and City Police Officers needs to make local community policing committees to take the support of the public to reduce the criminal activities and as well as to bridge the gap between police and the public at local level.
This will help them to reduce the crime and improve the performance of the police. Kausar Abbas further added that the budget allocation for the police stations needs to be improved and the Station House Officer needs to be strengthen by including his views while making the annual budget of the police station and as well as giving him authority to spend the budget of his police station as per need of the station. A monitoring committee comprises of citizens and the notables of the area should be made to monitor the performance of the local police. The fiscal strengthening and the monitoring mechanism will reduce corruption in the police department, he added. The duty hours of the police needs to be fixed maximum up to 8 to 10 hours to make them relax to perform their duties in a better way. The Government needs to make a mechanism on immediate basis to avoid any violence and corruption by the police in future.
