The Ernakulam Rural Police have embarked on a novel mass contact programme of sorts that aims at covering the entire population within their limits in a few years.
At the heart of it is a programme through which the district police headquarters reaches out to petitioners across all 34 police stations in the Rural police limits on a daily basis for feedback and rating. The initiative is in keeping with State Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Sahib’s circular asking the police to put the focus on petitioners.
“Rather than presume that the circular is being enforced in the absence of any complaints from the petitioners, we wanted to be proactive and ensure its compliance in letter and spirit. The initiative will also inspire confidence among the petitioners who may otherwise keep their grievances about police stations to themselves,” said District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural) Vaibhav Saxena.
On an average, 80 to 100 petitions are lodged across the Rural police stations. A four-member team from the district headquarters contacts the petitioners. Petitioners are asked about the date of visit and whether they received a digital receipt for their petitions, whether any action was initiated, and about the behaviour of police officers followed by a rating on a scale of 10 points. A feedback report is submitted to Mr. Saxena every day at 11 a.m.
“We are getting an average rating of 6-8. While a rating of ‘average’ is acceptable, ‘bad’ is not, in which case we reach out to the police station concerned and where needed counselling is also arranged. The programme has the added advantage that the stations are aware that they are being monitored at the district headquarters and put their best foot forward,” said Mr. Saxena.
Bad rating is not taken at face value but verified whether it was based on facts or was just made-up. For instance, a complaint that an FIR was not registered promptly may be because that there were multiple petitioners at the same time or the Station House Officer got summoned for attending to a law and order issue.
“The initiative also has a multiplier effect. The 100 petitioners being rung up along with their family members take our reach to around 36,000 persons in a year. If families in their neighbourhood who may get to know about the programme from them are also to be counted, the number may go up to 4 -4.50 lakh a year and in two or three years, the entire population in Rural limits may be covered,” said Mr. Saxena.
