Helping the police : Neighbourhood watch to make our homes safe

Home dept plans to launch programme to improve security.

KARACHI:

The Sindh home department is all set to introduce the Neighbourhood Crime Watch Programme (NCWP) in the city in an effort to make residents feel safer.

Consultant on Home Affairs Sharfuddin Memon held a meeting with a delegation of the Community Watch (CW), a group of residents of Defence Housing Authority, and then prepared a working paper on the initiative, that would be launched in different parts of the city in phases. Memon presented the paper to home minister Zulfiqar Ali Mirza.

According to Memon, the NCWP would first be introduced in some localities of Defence and Clifton under a partnership between the CW and the police. Later, it would be extended to cover all of DHA and Clifton - after due consultation with the Clifton Cantonment Board, the Defence Housing Authority and the society of DHA residents. “The programme is based on the notion that community interaction and support can help control crime and reduce fear. Community members can help identify suspects, bring problems to the attention of the police or otherwise pinpoint the social issues which give rise to crimes in the first place,” he said.

Memon explained that the goal of the programme was to prevent crime through neighbourhood security by heightening the community’s power of observation and encouraging mutual assistance and concern among neighbours.

Mirza appreciated the CW’s volunteer offer and asked the consultant to strengthen the efforts to motivate residents’ associations across the city to come forward and assist the police voluntarily and in doing so, make their homes, streets and neighbourhoods safer.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.