LAHORE: Dolphin Unit – a new force aimed to enforce preventative policing, maintaining order and checking street crime – is expected to start operating towards the end of December, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Inspector General of Punjab Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukehra has sent a directive to Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains to speed up the process of selecting police officers for the new department. Wains has constituted a committee headed by Operations DIG Haider Ashraf and comprising Headquarters SP Omer Saeed, Mujahid Squad SP Zahid Nawaz and two members of Turkey’s national police, to see the formation of the Dolphin Squad through.
Ashraf told The Express Tribune that the committee will meet in the first week of December to select an SP, four DSPs, a police representative and 12 constables.
He said the selected officials will receive six-weeks training in Lahore. Their trainers will be sent to Turkey for training as well, he said.
SP Omer Saeed said 1,200 policemen will be inducted in the force initially. “First, we will look for volunteers within the police force who want to join the new department.” He said they wanted policemen at least 5-feet and 9-inches tall, between 25 to 35 years of age.
He said the minimum education requirement for trainers will be FSc (intermediate) and the minimum qualification for members of the force will be matriculation.
“The Dolphin Squad’s chief responsibility will be patrolling,” Saeed said.
On May 31, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced the formation of a Dolphin Unit along the lines of the Dolphin Unit in Turkey. He said it would come in force towards the end of the year and all its officials would be inducted on merit. He said that the Dolphin Unit would help end street crime from the province while speaking to delegation of the national police of Turkey which was led by Mustafa Ozguler. While meeting Mustafa Ozguler, of the national police of Turkey, Sharif had discussed matters pertaining to the unit and an integrated command and control centre. Home Minister Shuja Khanzada, the inspector general of police, the home secretary and the Punjab information technology board chairman were also present at the meeting. Sharif had said that Turkish police experts would train master trainers to train members of the Dolphin Unit. He said the command and control centre in Lahore would be built along the lines of the centre in Istanbul.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2014.
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