Newly established ‘Stop and Search’ police force causing traffic jams

If you live in District South or have travelled through it in the last few days, you may have noticed police pickets set up in the middle of major thoroughfares, with vehicles being allowed through one lane on either side. Cops have been deployed under this ‘Stop and Search’ initiative by Senior Superintendent of Police Pir Muhammad Shah.

Forget about the traffic mess these pickets are causing or the nuisance commuters are facing as each vehicle is stopped at one of the 18 pickets set up across the district, SSP Shah feels it is necessary to check the identity of everyone who travels to or within his zone.

“People will express their annoyance for a week or two and then everyone will get used to it,” he said when asked about the public anger over the long lines. “They will all learn to leave their houses early if they have to reach somewhere,” he said.

The newly established force has total strength of 396 policemen. The force is working in three shifts. One hundred of fifty-four cops are for the morning and evening shifts, while another 88 are for the night shift. Each picket has seven personnel – two on motorcycles, two on the barriers and two for the communication with the commuters, while the remaining one is their commander.

“Basically, we have to establish a total 20 pickets. Two more pickets are yet to be established,” SSP Shah shared. “We have no intentions to add disturbance for the commuters. But it is to facilitate the commuters.”

He further explained that by this force, the police would have their control over the traffic as this force gives police a capacity and confidence to control the traffic movement. “In such circumstances, we would easily be able to stop and search any suspected vehicle by controlling the traffic. We can also easily stop and search the terrorists or criminals trying to flee after committing any activity.”

In the next phase, the police have also planned to install CCTV cameras along with the check points. “From the CCTV cameras, we would be able to identify the drivers, riders and registration number plates of their vehicles. Also, it would help us to monitor the activities of the cops,” SSP Shah explained. “This is a part of the safe city project and we would have to develop a sense among the people about the presence of the people.”

The force is only asking the drivers to keep CNICs with them. “They are only asking the drivers to show the CNICs. Those who are not producing the CNICs are being requested to have CNICs with them next time,” he said. “We are doing this for the citizens’ protection and the citizens should have bear with this, believing these check points as traffic signals.”

“There is also a central mess to provide lunch, dinner and tea for all three shifts cops,” he said. “The force has been directed to not to stop and search the vehicles in the peak hours like 8am to 10am and 5pm to 8pm to ease the commuters.”

He said the police were not checking the commuters but just filtering them and they would do their best to ease the problems of the commuters.

In replying to a question about hurdles being created by the police pickets, he said the people would be used to them within a week. He gave an example of Colombo. “When terrorism was on the rise in Colombo, the government had asked its citizens to come outside earlier to avoid waste of time during stop and search. People had to leave for the airport nine hours instead of three hours because they had an idea that the six hours will go into stop and search.”

In replying to another question about threats, the police officer said that there was threat alerts 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.

However, citizens do not agree with SPP Shah. “We do respect the police but it is not the way to stop terrorism or crime,” says a citizen, Shahzaib Ahmed. “If they really want to search and arrest criminals, they must improve their intelligence system instead of stopping and searching people already fed up with Karachi’s traffic.”

The force’s personnel do not seem unhappy with their deployment. “It is good. It is helping us to easily stop and search every suspected vehicle,” says a policeman at one of the pickets on the condition of anonymity.

“We are just only asking the drivers of suspected vehicles about CNICs before letting them into the red zone area.” He admitted that checking at the pickets was disrupting the traffic flow. “Yes, it is creating disturbance as checking one vehicle takes a minimum of 20 to 30 seconds and people are even abusing us,” he explained.

“We only stop suspected vehicles because there would be massive gridlock if we started checking each and every vehicle.”