Reducing crime through training

Training course for SHOs begins.

LAHORE:

A six -day training course for station house officers of model police station across the province commenced on Monday.

Inspector General Javed Iqbal opened the course. He said the course aimed at making Punjab a crime free province. He said the objective could only be achieved through well trained officials.

The IG said that 100 model police stations would begin working from March 23. He said 20 of these model police stations will be set up in Lahore, four in Sheikhupura, four in Sahiwal, five in Sargodha, three in Bahawalpur, four in DG Khan and 15 each in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Multan.

He said that these stations will be equipped with CCTV cameras, computers, investigation kits and mobile phones for the SHOs.

He said separate reception and information counters and interrogation rooms for men and women will be set up at these stations.

He said the SHOs at these stations will inform the relatives of anybody they arrest. He said electronic receipts and hand written reports mentioning case progress will be issued to the complainants.

He said each SHO in the bigger cities will be given Rs100,000 every month as a budget to run the police station. A proposal for a monthly allowance of Rs15,000 for each model station SHO has been sent to the government, he said.

The IG said that assistant sub inspectors at model stations will be required to be university graduates, while head constables with at least intermediate education will be appointed as moharrars.

The IG said he hoped that the SHOs would help bridge the gap between the public and police to make the department a credible and respected institution.

Later, the IG, while talking to the media said that people who had abducted Shahbaz Taseer, Warren Weinstein, Amir Aftab Malik and two foreigners from Multan had demanded billions of rupees as ransom. “We are looking into the matter as to whether it is the same case as Raymond Davis or not,” he said. He said the two abducted foreigners worked for an NGO in Multan and had refused to avail police security.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24^th, 2012.