1,870-strong Street Watch Force to tackle street crime

Though the law enforcement agencies (LEAs) achieved obvious successes in the recent years in curbing targeted killings, extortion and kidnappings for ransom in the city, they, however, failed to control the biggest law and order issue of the city — street crime — that seems to have affected every other citizen of the city.

An overwhelmingly large number of citizens of Karachi have been deprived of their valuables by street criminals in the recent years and some of them even lost their lives as robbers shot them for resisting muggings.

Data compiled by media organisations and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee reveals that in the first eight months of the ongoing year, around 36 citizens, including women, children and LEAs personnel, lost their lives to street criminals and 402 others were injured for resisting attempted muggings.

During this period, 968 citizens were robbed of their mobile phones from their four-wheelers, whereas 18,819 citizens on two-wheelers and 13,034 pedestrians also lost their mobile phones.

In order to counter rampant street crime in the city, Karachi police chief Additional IGP Dr Amir Shaikh on Saturday announced forming a specialised force, named Street Watch Force, comprising 1,870 personnel.

A majority of the police personnel in the Street Watch Force are newly recruited in the Sindh police.

They will patrol the streets and roads in groups of four on two motorbikes. The district SSPs have been appointed as heads of the force within their districts.

It may be noted here that the police in two districts of the city, South and Korangi, have already experimented with the use of a specialised force to combat rising incidents of street crime.

Initially, former South SSP Javed Akbar Riaz established an anti-street crime force in District South and later Korangi SSP Sajid Sadozai did the same.

According to SSP Sadozai, the experiment proved successful. “In my district, there is a massive decrease in street crime, as six to seven daily incidents of snatching have now decreased to two or three,” he told The News.

“Now we are strengthened and would be able to combat street crime more effectively,” the SSP explained.

He added that a four-member special team had also been formed to monitor the force.

“The four personnel will be in plain clothes and monitor the force to ensure that it effectively performs its job and is not involved in receiving bribes from citizens.”