LAHORE, Sept 7: A force of 17,000 policemen is not enough for meeting the growing needs of a population of eight million, says city police chief additional IG Khwaja Khalid Farooq.

Talking to Dawn, the AIG said there was a need to double the existing strength to fight crimes effectively. Citing the example of the Indian capital, he said that more than 70,000 policemen took care of 14 million souls in New Delhi.

He said the Punjab capital lacked extra force for deployment at sensitive places and trade centres. Staff at each police station, according to him, was over-burdened.

Nevertheless, he said, street crime situation had improved after the recent induction of Muhafiz Force. He said its strength was being increased from 250 to 400.

Farooq said that police stations had been directed to register crime freely as their performance would not be judged on the basis of the number of cases registered.

He said for the first time FIRs of cell phone snatching were also being registered. “Five SHOs have already been suspended for not complying with directions in this regard.” He said the police had registered 125 cases of cell phone snatching and 80 of cash looting (up to Rs1,500-Rs6,000) in last two months.

The CCPO said a supervisory police officer (SPO) had been appointed in each police station to monitor the performance of the investigation and operations. He said that the new experiment would help improve the performance of both the wings.

Regarding police response to emergency calls at 15, the AIG said 80 per cent calls were bogus which wasted police time and resources.

Mr Farooq said that new scientific methods were being adopted to trace and investigate culprits. The city police, he added, had computerised the data of 7,000 criminals.

Regarding the induction of PCS inspectors in the Punjab police, he said two-thirds of the officers had failed to deliver.

Khawaja Khalid Farooq was of the view that the criminal justice system would have to be improved by removing lacunas in it.