Delhi Police works for safer society through Community Police Initiatives

New Delhi [India], March 6 : Delhi Police works for building a safer society through Community Police Initiative which is an effort to form a partnership between police and ordinary citizens in dealing with crime.
According to Devesh Chandra Srivastava Joint Commissioner of Police, Licensing, to build a safer society, a partnership between police and ordinary citizens is essential and efforts in this direction are sometimes described as community policing.
"It is a strategy aimed at achieving effective and efficient crime control, reducing fear of crime, and improving police services through a proactive reliance on community resources that seek to change the crime causing conditions. The Central goal of community policing is for police to build relationships with the community, including through local agencies to reduce social disorder," the Joint Commissioner of Police said.
Delhi police is running a number of schemes that focus especially on community policing such as Sashakti, Police Mitra, Nigehban, eyes and ear scheme, Neighbourhood Watch Scheme, Nirbheek, Pehchaan, Traffic Sentinel Scheme, Nazuk, Yuva: Engaging Youth in Skill Development etc. which are separate from the more centralized units that respond to emergencies. Various initiatives that were taken in previous years were continued vigorously in 2020.
Sashakti--Self Defence Training-- A large number of women are working outside the home. Self-defense training programmes have inculcated a sense of confidence among them to resist any inappropriate act against them and report such acts to police at once without hesitation.
Under the Sashakti Scheme, 69953 girls/women have imparted self-defence training in 481 programmes during the year 2020. Delhi Police has entered the "Limca Book of Records" by training over 13 lakh women so far in 7,313 programmes organized under this scheme since 2002.
Prahari scheme--Prahari, a force multiplier for policing is an initiative of Delhi Police for involving various stakeholders like guards and chowkidars in the prevention of crime. It aims at promoting a feeling of ownership and camaraderie in the community to promote better police-public relations.
Police Mitra--This scheme is aimed at involving civil society in crime prevention and maintenance of law and order. The objective is to achieve effective policing with the active involvement of local citizens. Police Mitra assist local police in picket duties, traffic management, collection of intelligence and law and order arrangements etc.
Nigehban--under this scheme Delhi Police has surveyed all important locations of the city and draw a list of sensitive areas which require CCTV monitoring. Individuals, RWAs, and MWAs have been motivated to install CCTV cameras at identified spots by pooling their resources. This project is a shining example of proactive community policing.
Eyes and Ear Scheme--In this scheme, various sections of the public like rehriwalas, chowkidars, patriwalas, security guards, parking attendants, three-wheelers/taxi drivers, bus drivers/conductors, porters, shopkeepers, property agents, second-hand car dealers, landlords, members of RWA/MWA, cybercafe owners, guest house owners and other alert citizens are involved in providing information regarding suspicious activities of individuals and crimes.
Nirbheek--While a number of platforms are available with the general public to seek help from the police in cases of sexual harassment, an urgent need was felt to create a specialized forum for the girl child victims in school/college-going age group to effectively report such crimes.
Delhi police officials pay regular visits to 'co-educational as well as only for girls schools and conduct interactive sessions with girl students. The aim of these sessions is to build up a rapport with them, talk about various initiatives of Delhi Police to instill a sense of confidence in them, and to sensitize them about basic precautions to be taken against sexual abuse.