Karachi police ‘revamping emergency response mechanism’

The Karachi police is revamping the emergency response mechanism on modern international standards. A dedicated deputy inspector general (DIG) is now operations in charge of Madadgar Command Control (MCC-15) and associated services.

Talking to The News on Tuesday, DIG Maqsood Memon, head of the security units of the Karachi police, including the MCC 15, said that the Security and Emergency Division comprises various police units working together to strengthen the MCC 15.

The revamped MCC 15 will ensure first responders to all calls, hot pursuit of criminals, prevention of street crime, surveillance of anti-social elements, snap checking, information gathering, public facilitation and help, SOS alerts and coordination with emergency services.

DIG Memon said the MCC 15 now responds to any situation within nine minutes, whereas the earlier response time was 30 minutes. The force would be equipped with modern gadgets, including mobile tablets, security cameras, and wireless communication and trackers.

The force will have access to the identity verification system (IVS) to check the genuineness of the CNIC, to the vehicle verification system (VVS) to identify unregistered and stolen vehicles and motorcycles, to the criminal record verification (CRV) to check the criminal history of a person, incident tagging to capture details of any incident, surveillance of persons released from jails, the tenants information system (TIS) and traffic management etc.

DIG Memon said a proper monitoring mechanism would be in place by establishing a separate command desk at command and control centre to monitor the activities of the force. The location and movement of each patrol vehicle would be recorded, live-streaming of the all response vehicles would be monitored and recorded, snap checking would be recorded and instructions would be communicated from the command desk, he added.

Describing the MCC 15 improvements, he said they have made some major improvements so far without incurring any additional expenditure. After the establishment of the Security and Emergency Service Division Karachi, he added, the following improvements have been made in MCC 15: the strength of emergency services have been increased from 1,100 police personnel to 2,200 personnel; previously, 106 police mobiles were deployed for 15 emergency services, but now 40 and 30 additional vehicles from the SSU and the Muhafiz Force respectively are being utilised for emergency calls; additional personnel of the SSU had been deployed at Madadgar Call Centre; seven deployment centres have been established in each district of the Karachi Range, wherefrom all fleet and ground staff will be dispatched for duty in order to give a quick response; and two DSPs in two shifts are deployed in each zone for the supervision and monitoring of the deployment centres.

He added that a biometric attendance system has been installed at every deployment centre for proper monitoring and supervision of manpower, KOT is established at every deployment centre, third shift has started for better performance, 15 emergency mobiles are working around the clock, and the deployed strength of emergency services is facilitated with accommodation at four places (CTD Building PTC Saeedabad, Chowkandi Base, Headquarters Khawaja Ajmair Nagri and Garden Headquarters Karachi).

The DIG security said the strength of IT staff had been increased to seven from one at old 15. Only two PRIs were working at 15 emergency call centre, but now one new PRI had been added and there were now three PRIs working, he added.

District-wise dispatchers have been increased from five to seven and now every district has a separate dispatch, and the staffers of telecommunication and wireless sets have also been increased. Chairs for call agents were insufficient; therefore, 80 new chairs have been provided to 15 emergency call centre and service level has increased from to 98 per cent.

DIG Memon stated that the revamping of the MCC 15 included call recording, a listening and feedback system had been acquired for quality improvement, and the fuel limit of Madadgar 15 vehicles had been increased from 10 liters to 15 liters per day.

Apart from that, he said that to further improve the capabilities of the personnel of the newly formed division of the Sindh Police he had requested the Sindh inspector general of police for emergency services response training.

He shared that the Sindh police had formed a new division, namely Police Security and Emergency Services

Division, headed by the DIG Security and Emergency Services Division, Karachi, and the main objective was to streamline the security deployment adn emergency response to ensure a safe and secure environment in the city.

The newly established division has started functioning to cater to emergency response needs with the available resources. In order to further improve the police emergency response and security, it is essential to equip and train the personnel as per the set international standard to respond rapidly in emergency situations, he added.

This newly formed division of the Sindh police would like to get 400 personnel of the Security and Emergency Services Division trained for emergency response services, emergency call operators, surveillance operators and dispatch officers’ tasks of emergency response services (Dolphin Force) by the Punjab Police and Punjab Safe Cities Authorities in the first phase.

He added that it has been requested that a focal person be nominated for coordination and assistance to initiate the above training programme in order to provide a safe and secure environment to the citizens of Karachi.