To bridge the gap between the community and the police, and to involve the civil society in policing, Delhi police had launched a scheme, Police Mitra, almost a year back in November 2016. Police Mitras, people selected from the community, are now visiting parks across the sub-city to establish a close connect with people, especially senior citizens.
Talking to City Spidey, Dwarka ACP Rajendra Singh said, “As a first measure, we have selected about 100 popular parks for our police mitras. We want to build a strong bond with the community. Each police mitra has been assigned two parks close to home. They are to meet people and know their problems —build the image of police and policing as part of the community. At present, we have assigned 45 police mitras for the sub-city.”
According to the ACP, “The mitras are meeting senior citizens in the park — making a list of areas that don’t have proper lighting; finding out whether streetlights function or not. On the whole, we are making efforts to build some sort of relation with the people. The police mitras are from the same locality, so they are known faces. So, it’s an effective way of policing. “Buddy Patrolling” is also happening at the same time, where buddy riders, or policemen on cycles, are meeting people in the parks.”
The initiative was launched by the then Commissioner of Delhi Police Alok Kumar Verma (IPS) at Sector 10, Dwarka, in the south-west police range of Delhi. A total of 284 police mitras, including 49 females, were enrolled in this scheme.
The aim was to involve members of the civil society in prevention of crime, maintenance of law and order and improve communication with police to ensure a safer society.
