LET COPS LEARN PUBLIC DEALING

People say rude behaviour of police personnel is indeed an issue. They say arragements should be made to hone the inter-personal skills of the cops.

Let’s adopt police stations The way to make police more accessible and people friendly is community policing. In fact, a few years back, Punjab Police had taken this initiative but couldn’t implement it properly. Community policing means that the SHO would meet the residents of his area and tell them that the police are their friend. I feel and believe that besides community policing, clubs and NGOs should adopt police stations. In fact, I did this by adopting sadar police station and got trees planted there and even arranged for the furniture and curtains. By adopting these police stations by different NGOs and clubs, the gap between public and police will definitely decrease. Lower staff of police should be trained to be friendly with the public. In fact, if we have constable beat system, there will be more liaisons between the public and the police. I also believe that senior officers should visit schools and colleges and different localities of the cities to make people shed their fear of khaki and be more friendly towards the police force. There should be a suggestion box installed at the police headquarters also and the suggestions should be seriously monitored.

Brij Bedi, Amritsar

Cops need training in public dealing Policemen who don’t treat citizens with respect actually disrespect the uniform they don. First of all, the people should have easy access to police through toll-free numbers as we have for ambulance. Moreover, there should be provision of exemplary punishment for cops found guilty of undesirable behaviour while dealing with public. Bringing smaller areas under the purview of senior officials will also help check the problem. Most importantly, cops should be appropriately trained in how to deal with public.

Sanjog Singh Ahuja, Guru Nanak Dev University

Screen cops’ behaviour during recruitments If the government is serious in developing Amritsar as a city of international standards, policing is one of the core areas needing attention. Massive changes are required from recruitment procedure to the management of the force. Besides the physical fitness test, candidates’ communication skills should also be assessed at the time of recruitment. Training to improve inter-personal skills should be a regular feature for cops. Salaries of cops should be hiked. Also, public need to cooperate with the cops.

Rohit Kumar, Amritsar

Cops need classes in public dealing The authorities should make arrangements for sessions where cops could hone their communication skills. If they talk in a friendly manner, the public will also cooperate with them. It’s a two-way process. Navdeep Dhot, DAV College, Amritsar

More police-public interactions required I feel that most of the people hesitate in approaching police because of their rude behaviour. The police personnel need to learn better communication skills to win the public trust. Also, any link with police is considered a taboo and nobody wuld walk into a police station until it was required. To overcome this, police department needs to organise seminars where people can interact with the cops. This way people will gradually feel comfortable dealing with police. Lastly, online FIRs should be encouraged in a big way.

Puneet Dhillon, DAV College

Let police, public mingle I feel that effort needs to be made by both the police and people. Police officials should hold special events where people can come forward and share their problems and grievances with the police. Similarly, people should also not hesitate in approaching the police and cooperate with them whenever needed. People have this misconception in their minds that only the police only listen to the powerful. This needs to be changed.

Samridhi Mehra, BBK DAV College