LAHORE, Nov 27: As a new community-led policing model has recently been launched in Khanewal district, the Punjab police chief has sought feedback from other districts to replicate it across the province.

A police officer privy to the development told Dawn that the formal launch of UC-based community policing in Khanewal was brought to the notice of the chief minister and the IGP in the form of presentations by the Multan regional police officer during meetings a couple of weeks ago.

He said the IGP appreciated the model and directed his staff to assess its impact and get feedback from other districts if it was worth replication keeping in view high crime rates. He said the model would make the police force more result-oriented and answerable to community as well as the higher authorities.

The community policing model, which has been introduced in 96 union councils of 18 police stations of the district, is aimed at involving citizens in helping the police in crime prevention and detection, dispute resolution at local level, and public assistance in general law and order situations.

Earlier, the police of districts were relying on 40 police beats supervised by station house officers which had almost become redundant and lacked community role.

Up to 10 members including the police beat in-charge have been selected in each union council office to become part of reconciliation and crime control committees. Each UC, which is declared a beat, has been formally given a sub-inspector/assistant sub-inspector as beat in-charge and up to five constables for coordination, meetings, patrolling, picketing and target-specific raids.

Two motorcycles and one wireless set (125 motorcycles and 73 wireless sets worth Rs15.02 million donated by community) have been provided to the police at each council for official duty. One beat book containing numbers of urban towns, villages, banks and other places and another book containing record of eight categories of criminals including proclaimed offenders, court absconders, Afghan Trained Boys (ATBs), people under Schedule 4 and scoundrels will be maintained in the beat on a daily basis.

Officials are performing their duties within a UC limits for patrolling, picketing, raids and maintaining liaison with committee members for multiple disputed matters.

The crime control committees will identify crimes and criminals, crime pockets and work on gathering information about criminals whereas the reconciliation committees will help the police in resolving local level disputes.

The acquisition of Android phones’ USAID-funded software application for surveillance of beat officials, their movements and activities is also on the cards. These phones will be handed over to the beat in-charges who will capture photographs of the police raids, crime scene and other policing activities and send those to the central control room on a daily basis.

The district police chief is also considering proposals to seek access from the Excise & Taxation Department and Nadra to check status of vehicles and motorcycles and identities of travellers with the help of Android phones.

According to the SOP each beat in-charge and his subordinates, who will work in two shifts a day, have started setting up pickets at three troubled points regularly for showing deterrence and fighting crime. The beat in-charges will attend meetings of both committees and keep members updated about each action.

Khanewal DPO Rana Ayyaz Saleem says the centralised old beat system lacked division of labour at grassroots level. Inefficiency of SHOs to use their force and the police absence from duties pushed them to replace it with new result-oriented model, he says.

He says the idea floated by Multan RPO Ameen Vains has been implemented across the district with effective community involvement.