‘Coffee with a Cop’ campaign launched to strengthen relations between police and public

A campaign titled ‘Coffee with a Cop’, aiming to strengthen the relations between the police and the public, was launched at a hotel with the police officers of Karachi’s East Zone led by zone chief DIG Amir Farooqi.

His team members included East SSP Azfar Mahesar, Korangi SSP Ali Raza and Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur, as well as other male and female police officers of the East Zone. The word ‘cop’ symbolises community-oriented policing.

The event was addressed by a panel including former Sindh police chiefs Asad Jehangir Khan, Niaz Ahmed Siddiki, Iqbal Mahmood and Wajid Ali Durrani, as well as Justice (retd) Majida Razvi, Brig (retd) Farooq Shaukat, former training DIG Cdr Shaukat Ali, CPLC chief Zubair Habib, Advocate (LRF) Tahir Iqbal Malik and Shehri Executive Director Khatib Ahmed. It was attended by community-based organisations, NGOs, the academia, scholars, intellectuals, the business community, corporate sector organisations, jurists and the youth.

Elucidating the objectives of this campaign, Fouzia Tariq said that it aimed to foster closer community-police interaction, as well as to identify the needs of the citizens and their expectations of the police service in the prevention, detection of crime and maintenance of public peace.

“Our goal is to strengthen the police service through the civil society’s cooperation and support by building effective community-police partnerships. This will cultivate trust between the police and the community, and make the police service community-centric, accessible, transparent, responsive and accountable,” she said. She also stressed on boosting police morale by appreciating their work in public.

Issues relating to delays in the registration of FIRs, ethical policing, use of force and firearms, slack response of police officers in dealing with cases involving violence against women and girls, child rights, domestic violence, child marriages and custodial violence also came under discussion, with on-the-spot decisions.

DIG Farooqi said that initiatives have been taken to improve police-community relations, for which training of police officers has been introduced on positive attitude, humane behaviour, ethical conduct, and use of force and firearms.

On the suggestion of establishing a zonal police website, he announced the creation of the East Zone’s website that would carry the details of every officer posted at the police stations under its jurisdiction so that the people could know their area officers.

He also announced that he would frequently visit police stations to monitor their interactions with the community. He made the assurance that police services will be transparent, community-focused, citizen-friendly, just and accountable. At the conclusion of the event, Fouzia presented a memento to DIG Farooqi as a token of appreciation of his devoted services as a trusted friend of the community.