Guides appointed at Police Stations to resolve public complaints

By Uzma Zafar

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Police has taken a unique initiative to smoothly resolve the public complaints and deployed ‘Police Guides’ to properly guide those visiting police stations. A ceremony to appoint `Police Guides’ at 22 police stations of Islamabad was held at Secretariat Police Station which was attended by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad Qazi Jamil ur Rehman as Chief Guest and also by DIG (Operations) Afzaal Ahmed Kausar, SSP (Operations) Dr. Syed Mustafa Tanveer, Zonal SPs, SDPOs, traders community and media personnel.

The IGP Islamabad termed the appointment of Police Guides’ as an important step towards changing the typical thana culture’. He said that interaction with visitors at police stations in a decent manner would help to improve the image of police and attitude of Police Guides and men at Front Desk would be of utmost importance in this regard.
The decent attitude with complainants would be helpful in inculcating friendly police ecology, the IGP said and urged the policemen to make best possible efforts to resolve the problems of citizens with honesty and efficient manner. He said that complainants should feel secure themselves during visit of police stations rather than getting frightened.
Islamabad Police Chief said that `Police Guide’ would properly guide the visitors and ensure every possible assistance to them in police related matters. The police constables are initially entrusted responsibilities as police guides who would lead the visitors to resolve their complaints. The IGP said that 65 percent people visit police stations to get resolved their issues of minor nature.
DIG Operations Afzaal Ahmed Kausar thanked IGP Islamabad for his support and coordination in implementation of this idea. He said that feedback from Islamabad police chief would help a lot to provide relief to the citizens under this new initiative.
Earlier, the DIG Operations said that Station House Officers and Muharrars at police stations were appointed after tests and interviews. The purpose of all these steps, he said, was to change the typical policing culture and bridge gap between community and police. According to research for ensuring effective policing, the DIG Operations said that decent behavior of policemen and registration of complaints have been termed very much important.
At the end, SSP Operations Dr. Syed Mustafa Tanveer briefed the `Police Guides’ about their new assignment and urged them to accomplish their responsibilities in a professional manner.
He said that service and relief to people should be the objectives and every possible effort to be made to achieve them. Indecent attitude with people would not be tolerated while those showing good performance would be encouraged, he maintained.