‘Policing communities necessary to control crime in Rawalpindi’

Rawalpindi : An information request under Punjab Transparency and Right to Information was filed by a female citizen Aneeqa Ibrahim to City Police Office inquiring the statistics of the registered cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping, honour killing and child abuse in Rawalpindi.

The office of City Police Officer responded to the citizen that 473 robbery, 281 kidnapping, 148 murder, 3 honour killings and 15 child abuse cases registered in 6 months starting from July 01, 2018 to January 15, 2019.

She said that the purpose of seeking information was to check the performance of Rawalpindi police. Syed Kausar Abbas, Director of Sustainable Social Development Organization (SSDO) said that police has given a good gesture by sharing information with the public but there is a need to reduce the crime ratio in the district by engaging local communities.

The community policing can help the government and the police to reduce the crime and also to improve the image of the police in the public. The ratio of crime increasing rapid in Rawalpindi raised a question on the performance of the Rawalpindi police to provide the security to the citizens’, he added. There is a dire need to build the capacity of police on dealing the public in a decent way and politely to improve its image and trust in the community.

The government needs to make a strategy to overhaul the police system and bring new laws to make them accountable to citizens and relevant authorities and as well as to avoid any violence from the police in future. The District and City Police Officers needs to make local community policing committees to take the support of the public to reduce the criminal activities and as well as to bridge the gap between police and the public at local level. This will help them to reduce the crime and improve the performance of the police.