Out of box strategies

This refers to the letter ‘Street crimes’ (December 8) by Rafia Abdul Jabbar. It seems that street crimes in Karachi are normal occurrences. The fact that for residents these crimes have become a routine incident and that the public now doesn’t protest against the surge of insecurity shows the inefficiency of the law-enforcement agencies. Almost all countries are taking steps to make the citities safer. Streets are now relatively safer in some violence-infested cities, including Sao Paulo, Capital District, New York, Atlanta and Los Angles, by adopting multi-disciplinary strategies.

Policing strategies extend beyond traditional models of responding to calls for service and often seek to increase crime prevention, intervention and response effectiveness through techniques such as community outreach, efficient resource distribution, crime mapping and crime data collection on suspect location. Street crime in Karachi can be tackled by devising out-of-the=box strategies and doing away with traditional approaches.

Dr Najeeb A Khan

Islamabad