Police post limits, phone numbers

The police have put up sign boards defining the jurisdiction of each police station to make them more accessible.

LAHORE: The police have put up sign boards defining the jurisdiction of each police station in a bid to make them more accessible to the public.

Each of these boards also displays the phone number of the relevant station house officer and other senior police officials that members of the public can contact in case of a complaint or an emergency.

“In this way we want to establish a process of quick accountability of the lazy and corrupt police officials,” DIG (Operations) Rao Sardar Ali Khan told The Express Tribune.

The development appears to mark a realisation among senior police officials that encouraging public access to police stations is an essential element of their duty.

For the last 17 months, since police station numbers were changed to put the digits 92 at the beginning, police station sign boards had displayed incorrect phone numbers.

Khan said that the boards would now be kept up to date, and station house officers (SHOs) had been told to revise the displayed phone numbers as soon as there was a transfer. He said he had also issued directions that the personal contact numbers of sub divisional police officers and superintendent of police also be displayed on sign boards.

“People should telephone the high ups if they experience improper behaviour at police stations,” he said. “They can even inform me directly on my personal phone number if they can’t get their problems redressed at police stations.” He said he also wanted to end delays in registration of FIRs at police stations.

Some members of the public welcomed the new signboards, but others were sceptical, saying they wouldn’t be surprised if the boards were not kept updated a few months from now.

Advocate Muhammad Sharif Khokhar, an expert in criminal law, told The Express Tribune that the new boards would definitely help people seeking to get FIRs registered. “Most people are unaware what jurisdiction they are in. Normally they have to visit two or three police stations to lodge a complaint,” he said. Khokhar said some work-shy duty officers at the police stations made matters worse by deliberately misleading complainants about jurisdictions, so they would not have to register a case. “The high ups also need to end this practice,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2010.