A senior officer of the Maharashtra Police said that in certain cases, on account of particular units operating only in certain jurisdictions, there is also a risk of forces working at cross purposes. (Representational image)The Maharashtra Police is planning to institutionalise its best policing practices being followed successfully in various commissionerates and districts across the state. These practices will then be replicated across Maharashtra. Initiatives like ‘Police Didi’ started by the Mumbai Police and ‘Bharosa Cell’ of the Pune Police are among the schemes that are likely to be replicated across the state. The police will tap the state budget for implementation funds, as per the Government Resolution (GR) issued in February, allowing funds for community policing initiatives.
Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Jaiswal told The Indian Express, “Sometimes good initiatives that are taken by certain officers are discontinued after the officers leave. Hence, we want to institutionalise these initiatives so that they continue even after particular officers are no longer linked to particular jurisdictions.” The officer said that some of the initiatives earmarked for statewide implementation includes the ‘Bharosa Cell’, a brainchild of IPS officer K Venkatesham.
The ‘Bharosa Cell’ caters to senior citizens, women and children victims of crime. Under the scheme, the victims receive counselling from psychologists, social workers and lawyers. The scheme received a good response in Pune and Nagpur. Besides, the police are also likely to implement the ‘Police Didi’ initiative of the Mumbai Police. Under this scheme, lady officers reach out to schools under their jurisdiction and sensitise children about good touch and bad touch. As a result of this scheme, there were certain cases of sexual assault in schools that came to the fore. Apart from these two schemes, the ‘Buddy Cop’ initiative of the Pune Police, launched in 2017 following the murder of an Infosys employee, is also likely to be replicated in other parts of the state. Under this scheme, a woman can add herself to the local police station’s WhatsApp group, where the group admin is the woman’s ‘buddy cop’ and can be contacted for assistance.
A senior officer of the Maharashtra Police said that in certain cases, on account of particular units operating only in certain jurisdictions, there is also a risk of forces working at cross purposes. “Hence, we want to ensure that there is uniformity as far as community policing initiatives are concerned,” the officer said. The officer added that while so far these initiatives were taken at an individual level, they will now be using funds allocated by the Maharashtra government for community police under a GR issued in February this year.
The officer said they have sought a list of community police initiatives across the state and within a month, they should be able to start executing the initiatives across Maharashtra. “Once executed, these will then become long-term initiatives with regular funding and infrastructure and will continue to work even after individual officers leave the jurisdiction,” the officer added.
