Another squad to police Lahore’s streets

The issue of launching another patrolling force named ‘Ababeel Squad’ to curb street crimes in Lahore is not just a matter of the addition of a new wing in capital city police.

Rather, it is the realisation of the failure of Punjab Safe City Authority (PSCA), Dolphin Squad and Police Response Unit (PRU), the prior initiatives launched by Lahore Police, that too not more than five years ago and after the spending of billions of rupees.

The move also raised critical questions about the absence of an accountability mechanism in Punjab Police, the department’s myopic vision and its inconsistency in adaptation of sustainable policies.

The police and political authorities had been selling these to the public as modern policing initiatives, as per international standards.

The police commanders had vowed that PSCA and Dolphin Squad were an integrated command, control and operation system.

Read Mason arrested for abducting married woman

Using it, the modern patrolling system would be introduced in the city, they claimed.

The commanders called PSCA as an initiative that would work as brain, ears and eyes of Lahore Police while Dolphin Squad would serve as a ground force.

With 10,000 cameras installed throughout the provincial capital, and via the PSCA control room, rogue elements and suspected criminals not only would be spotted but the police squads would be guided better when nabbing the criminals.

The emergency helpline 15 launched by PSCA control room would also make it easier for the public to report issues. Those sitting in the control room would dispatch the nearest teams and also help coordinate different patrolling teams as the target moved around the streets and roads.

PSCA was also tasked to identify the crime hotspots using helpline 15. This mechanism would result in the creation of an intelligent patrolling mechanism.

When PSCA and Dolphin Squad were being launched, unprecedented, huge claims were being made that the initiatives would slash Lahore’s street crimes to a ‘minimum level.’

The purpose of Dolphin Squad precisely was to be a force active against crime in narrow streets and congested areas.

As per details available with The Express Tribune, large sums of money and other resources were earmarked for the patrolling forces.

Both police projects were reportedly the most expensive projects in the history of policing in Punjab. PSCA alone had consumed more than the annual budget allocated for the entire police department.

International companies and experts were engaged besides procurement of latest information technology (IT) equipment.

Similar was the case with Dolphin Squad.

They were provided with motorcycles, each of which was worth more than the salaries of the entire staff of a typical police station.

A helmet used by the squad was worth more than a month’s salary of a police officer. The squad also underwent training in Turkey.

In the last six years, the city has seen one CCPO after another. Hardly a few months have passed since CCPO Ghulam Mehmood Dogar was appointed for Lahore in January.

Dogar had only been around as Lahore CCPO for a few weeks when he decided to launch Ababeel Squad, a new patrolling force parallel to Dolphin Squad. Reportedly, no one in the department was questioning his move.

Two parallel patrolling forces only showed that Dolphin Squad, a force which claims to be the most modern patrolling force, equipped with the latest IT equipment and weaponry, was just another police project that had failed to live up to the expectations of Lahore’s concerned public living in a city with rampant street crimes.

It is yet to be seen if Ababeel Squad would be a more sustainable police project which could reduce the provincial capital’s crimes and maintain low crime rates in the long term.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2021.