Lahore policing: all hands on deck

Police functionaries’ dealing with public is common sense while operationalizing the police is a complete science no less organized, logical and methodical than any other science.
These were the views expressed by DIG Operations Lahore Dr Haider Ashraf during this scribe’s visit to Lahore Police Ops office to study the Digitalization and Smart Policing model introduced with a big bang by the doctor of police science, Dr Haider Ashraf.
Of course the chief cop of the Operations Wing has behaved like doctor of police science by devising this strategy in the backdrop of public complaints about non-availability of police officials in emergency moments (though by now police response to public calls has tangibly improved). The scientific techniques that he and his team have devised will block the escape routes of work shirkers within this important law-enforcement department. The central idea is all hands on deck all the time.
But the inspiration has to come from top to bottom though there is no bar on seeking inspiration and learning from the subordinate rank and file. It is this inspiration that is going to keep all hands (read cops) on deck and this seems to be quite well known to the Lahore Police Operations top brass that is directly putting itself on red alert as much as the junior cops in the field are going to be on their marks. So, the instructions to all is: “On your marks, get set and move!” And those all include the cops right from the foot constable to the DIG himself. No one is above the system devised after thorough discussions and empirical experimentation and profound observation of all pros and cons of police-public ties and the police functioning patterns.
And, according to Dr Haider Ashraf, the underlying idea behind these innovative schemes is providing sure and speedy relief to people and maintaining a police-public liaison twenty four hours a day without any hassle and hiccups of the bygone days.
One step that is going to be of great help is the prompt release of motorcycles impounded on roads for violations of different sections of the law. Through the scientifically devised new system of verifications, the verifications would be henceforth done there and then and the motorcyclist would be rid of the hell of procedures and rigmarole. According to Ops chief, many motorcyclists/pillion riders had to face harassment at police ‘Nakas’ (barricades). Now that suffering is gone since only those motorcycles will be confiscated whose number falls in the database of stolen vehicles. This measure would amply restore the ‘honour’ of ordinary citizens that have been facing the wrath of cops in many ways.
But what about the accessibility of police officers? Answering this question, the DIG told The News that following the introduction of Digital Monitoring and Smart Policing system, accessibility issues are being handled through modern technology that includes complaints management system. Now even one SMS by any citizen at 8330 is enough. After that, police would automatically follow the complainants and trace their cases.
When this scribe sent an SMS at 8330, within no time, a reply message came from the police department for noting down the complaint.
There was a dire need to revamp and reorganize police system in this manner since the perception of police was not changing in the eyes of public.
When the DIG was asked whether he had been able to identify any flaws in the policing system, he said, “There was no organized system to record the complainants coming to police stations. Accessibility of police officers was one major hurdle in improving police culture. Moreover, the Operational Police Force was dependent on subject checking. It was felt that most of the time police officials were lying during operations. There was no specific set of key performance indicators of police. The administrative mechanism was mainly rudimentary and “Moharrar”-dependent. That “Moharrar”-dependent approach has proved to be redundant and out of sync with the requirements of present-day society. It was obviously incompatible with the transformation of the society especially in the wake of technological advancement.
The Operational improvements that have now been made are likely to improve the police image in the eyes of the public besides making them responsive to public needs and grievances. One of the features in this area includes formulation of a central mechanism to monitor police operations. The concept of OPS room is developed and initially formatted in Model Town division. In this Ops room, 15-dash-board enables police to monitor all the incoming calls and police dispatches from nerve center. The concept is totally new as no such practice exists in police, where dispatches are controlled from nerve center. The dashboard also classifies the incoming calls according to their severity. The callers’ feedback can also be obtained through SMS by the SMS system, enabling the police officer to know the quality and time of reaction. Then, the incoming calls are automatically delivered to the Beat Officer. Lahore Police have generated a concept of crime mapping. The crime hotspots are now identified and now extensively leading to targeted patrolling by the force. One feature of public utility is that police can broadcast messages from the Ops room thus delivering messages to the entire public.