IGP wants effective policing to curb menace of street crime

The Sindh inspector general of police (IGP), Ghulam Nabi Memon, on Saturday conducted a high-level meeting on prevention of street crime and instructed police officials to adopt effective policing to curb the menace.

He also ordered transfers of various SSPs from districts and units.

Officials said the police chief had earlier taken notice of the rising crime in the city and conducted a meeting two weeks ago, in which he ordered his subordinates to adopt measures for controlling the crime rate. He had also stated that he would conduct a review meeting in this regard.

In the review meeting on Saturday, the Sindh IGP was given a briefing on operations- and investigations-related performance against street crime at the district level.

After the briefing, IGP Memon said that more work should be done as cases of killings or injuries of innocent citizens during muggings were still being reported and needed to be controlled.

He said the police’s prime target in the current scenario should be the street criminals.

He directed the Karachi police to tighten snap checking and patrolling, and also start an accountability process regarding the performance of their officers, especially the SHOs who were posted at different police stations since long and were still not delivering, due to which the crime situation in their areas was not under control.

He directed the DIGs of various ranges and SSPs of the districts of Karachi to take action against the SHOs who had failed to control crime and in place of them, post deserving officers who were eager to serve the department and had a good track record.

The provincial police chief said the police stations of the areas infested with street crime should focus on showing performance against the crime. A police officer who could not perform was not eligible for an important post, he asserted and added that he would take feedback from the Sindh Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) on recoveries of arms from the arrested criminals.

According to officials, Karachi Additional IGP Javed Odho also briefed the meeting where he informed the IGP that the recent policing measures were bearing fruitful results.

The Karachi police chief informed the meeting that he was not only monitoring policing measures but also visiting different areas himself and had issued clear instructions to the police officers to work hard against street crimes.

It was said that operations were under way to eliminate criminal gangs from Karachi and arrests of habitual and new street criminals were being ensured.

Officials said the Sindh IGP also sought details and progress of the smart car functioning, upon which South DIG Irfan Baloch informed him that the Sindh police's first smart car had hit the road.

The car has been prepared by the District South police with the latest features and it will be patrolling Sharea Faisal.

The DIG further informed the meeting that the smart car digital modular was connected to a CRO device and the software developed by the Sindh police had modern features as the smart car could recognise number plates and faces. The car also had state-of-the-art surveillance cameras and recording facilities.

DIG Baloch added that the car was made according to the requirements of the modern era and it would help curb street crime.

Besides, the IGP sought details and progress of operations in the Katcha areas. He was informed that for the first time, three provinces would carry out simultaneous operations against criminals in the Kutcha areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

The meeting was told that the situation had been bad in the Kutcha areas for a long time and the Sindh and federal governments had prepared a joint strategy, after which the three provinces would work together. It was said that in order to speed up the operation, more weapons would be provided to the police.

IG Memon said that several robbers had been killed during encounters with police in the Katcha areas and after head money was announced, many robbers had been arrested by the police. He added that due to continuous police action, 80 per cent of people had been stopped from falling in honey traps.

The Sindh police chief has also transferred East SSP Abdul Rahim Shirazi due to the disturbing crime situation in the district and transferred him to the Anti-Violent Crime Cell. SSP Zubair Nazeer Sheikh has been posted as the East SSP.