Bangaloreans never tire of complaining about the city police force, but the island country of Singapore appears keen to learn some skills from our men in khaki. The Southeast Asian country has asked the city police to train them in not only crowd management and negotiation skills, but also in detection of cyber crimes.
The Singapore government has invited Bangalore police officials to train their Singaporean counterparts in handling riots and criminal investigation. In exchange, the Singapore police will train the Bangalore police in traffic management.
Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs, Trade and Industry, S. Iswaran, who visited Bangalore recently, proposed the idea of the exchange programme to improve the skills of police officials of both the countries during discussions with senior officials of the State Home Department at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian industry (CII), Bangalore.
As per the proposal, a team of six officers from the city have been hand-picked for the sojourn, whose duration of stay has not yet been finalised. The Bangalore city police has sent a proposal to the Union government through State Home Department in this regard and is awaiting approval.
“We are positive that the proposal will be approved soon, following which a team of officials will go to Singapore to learn the best practices in traffic management,” City Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar said.
Though there are a lot of differences between Bangalore and Singapore in terms of infrastructure and traffic management, Mr. Auradkar said the police would adopt the technology and skills which would be useful for the force in the future. The inadequacy of traffic infrastructure in Bangalore is expected to be addressed once mass public transport systems like the metro rail fall into place.
The expenses of the exchange programme will be borne by Samanvay Consulting Private Ltd., a city-based company, which facilitated the meeting, under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative.
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Raghavendra Auradkar, City police Commissioner
We are focusing more on technology in traffic management and through this program, the city police are going to have hands-on experience and the city will reap the benefits
Prof. M N Srihari, Traffic expert and adviser to govt. of Karnataka
The Singapore has technology-driven intelligent transport system which includes data card system, satellite monitoring enforcement and automatic road taxation system. The discipline among the motorists and road users are much higher compared to Bangalore. The city lacks such infrastructure and such programmes would be a farce in the absence of such infrastructure.
Praveen Sood, Additional Director General of Police and Managing Director, State Police Housing Corporation:
“Singapore is one of the best countries in terms of technology-driven traffic management, unlike our cities which are manpower-driven. This idea was mooted four years ago, but did not go further. It is high time the city police learnt something from this opportunity”
