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Prime Point Srinivasan speaking on 'Community Policing' . C Sridhar IPS (third from left), Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai looking on |
Former Police Officers of 1976 batch (FoPs1976), an active body of the retired Police Officers at Chennai organised a seminar on 'Community Policing' on Sunday the 10th Jan 2016 at Dr MGR Janaki College, Chennai. Shri C Sridhar IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, Chennai was the Chief Guest. Prime Point Srinivasan was the main speaker.
While addressing the audience, Prime Point Srinivasan explained about the online survey conducted by him two days earlier in order to understand the views of general public. He mentioned that he got 72 quality responses from different age group and gender through net. He also mentioned that the average trust shown by the general public on the Police was 45, which was neither too low or high. That means, the general public (online) had a reasonably a good trust on the Police system. However, he mentioned that there was a large gap between the Police and the general public.
While the respondents appreciated the good work and commitment shown by the Police force during the recent rains and floods, Srinivasan added that public crticised the Police for corruption, bad behaviour, arrogance, treatment to the public inside the station, etc. Srinivasan also added that respondents perceived that the Police had nexus with politicians and criminals.
Giving out the reasons for such perception, Srinivasan, explained that due to the large gap between the Police and the Public, good works done by the Police did not get reflected in the perception and only the bad things are highlighted. Further he felt that many of the field level Policemen were handling only the criminals during the most part of their time, unlike other professionals, these Policemen get into the same mood always and they show bad behaviour on the genuine citizens. He requested the Police Authorities at top level to continue to give training to the filed level Policemen.
Further Srinivasan said that due to the large gap in the relationship between the Police and the Public, citizens did not come forward in large numbers to help the Police. He suggested continuous interaction between the authorities at the regional level and the citizens of that area. He also suggested the model of 'Neighbourhood Watch Associations', as practised in Australia and other European countries.
He quoted the example of the work done by Police few years ago with the support of Rotary Club and Action 2020 Team, in which Srinivasan was also involved. He added that the project could not be taken further, as the Officials were transferred and none showed interest thereafter. He insisted on the sustainability of any project, involving the citizens.
Shri C Sridhar IPS, Additional Commissioner said that people joined the Police force only from the society. The natural degradation of values in the society also reflected on the people who joined the Police force. He agreed that regular training to field level police men and interaction with the citizens have to be planned to improve the system. He praised the involvement of the members of FoPs1976 to improve the system and to serve the society, even after their retirement.
Shri Ashok Kumar, Former Superintendent of Police and President of FoPs1976 welcomed the gathering. Shri Balu, Former Addl. Supdt. of Police and Secretary introduced the 4th edition of their monthly magazine 'Kakkiyin Pakkam'. Every month, through this magazine, they share the investigation experiences of their members for the benefit of their juniors. Shri Rajan, Vice President anchored the event.