The police have decided to rope in college, and school students as Friends of Police, to help them understand the concept of community policing at an early age.
“We plan to focus on arts colleges where students are likely to be day-scholars. After consulting with heads of education institutions, we will roll out the plan from January,” said Superintendent of Police, Dharmapuri, J. Loganathan, has said.
These student members, especially from schools, will be able to create awareness about Posco Act, and child rights, he added.
“We have already identified some villages, with over 500 to 1,000 households.
These villages will have 50 Friends of Police, who will each take turns to hold night rounds.In the new scheme of things, women too will play a major role.
As of now only men are roped in as Friends of Police. Once the students’ participation grows, naturally girl students too will form part of the ‘friends,’ he said.
When a police officer cannot to sent to a particular location immediately, these ‘friends’ can help the police by giving information regarding the ground situation, he said. Every police station would have around five such ‘friends,’ who are selected after verification of antecedents. They assist the police in crime prevention, traffic regulation, and give suggestions to the police that they get from citizens. In effect, they act as a bridge between the common man, and the police.
On Saturday, a training was given to the existing members.
An additional 100 members were selected.
Most of the members are aged between 25 and 65.
Some of them have been there since the early 90s, when the concept of Friends of Police was introduced in Ramnad, said Mr. Loganathan.
Each member have been asked to introduce a new ‘friend’ within a month, he said.
