‘Police Akka’ launched to save girls from cybercrimes

Coimbatore: City police commissioner V Balakrishnan on Tuesday launched a project called ‘Police Akka’ to create a trust-based friendliness with the college girl students and save them from falling prey to cybercrimes or any other offences.
The city police have roped in 37 women cops to visit all the 60 colleges in the city and interact with the girl students as part of the project. “The women cops will be like their sisters to the college girl students. Hence, we named the project as Police Akka,” he said.
Addressing the police officers and representatives of the 60 arts and science and engineering colleges in the city at the commissionerate, Balakrishnan said the 37 women cops were given training in hearing the problems of college girl students. “We are planning to organize an introduction programme at all the colleges. Contact numbers of all the 37 women police officers will be displayed at the college girls’ hostels and prominent places on the college premises. Every girl student should know the mobile number of the police akka.”
He said the management of the 60 colleges should provide space for the women police officers on their college premises. “The place should be accessible to the girl students. The police akka will visit each college once a week or once in 15 days or based on their work schedule for two to three hours and the girl students can meet the akka in person and discuss their issues.”
Pointing out that some girl students were falling prey to cyberbullying on social media, Balakrishnan said, in most of the cases they didn’t know what to do and whom to approach to come out of the problems. “Some girl students won’t reveal their problems to their parents, while others think their teachers would be judgmental and won’t hear their problems. The women cops are trained to listen to the girl students’ problems. If the students reveal their problems, the police akka will give them suggestions and assist them to take necessary actions.”
Trust, the city police commissioner said, was a very important thing and building a trust-based friendliness would take some time.
Deputy city police commissioner (headquarters) R Sughasini also addressed the gathering.