Buoyed by the success of Fest Force — a crowd management team formed and experimented during the State School Arts Festival — the City police have decided to make it a permanent mechanism with the continuing participation of higher secondary and college students.
City Police Commissioner A.V. George told The Hindu here on Sunday that the scheme was found highly effective in crowd control and traffic management during the festival.
“Though the members of this new force may change every year with the students passing out from their respective institutions, fresh batches, to be screened by the police, will take up the responsibility . This will be a pilot project in the State,” Mr. George said.
He added that the fresh batches would be trained by senior police officers in crowd management and traffic control.
During the State School Arts Festival, there were around 700 Fest Force members deployed in various nooks and corners of the city to manage the crowd without interrupting the flow of the festival. It was for the first time that a student force was kept ready ahead of the festival and seamlessly worked with other teams. Officials confirmed that the trial run was highly successful.
It was during a State School Arts Festival that the much-lauded Student Police Cadet (SPC) project was born in Kozhikode. Later, it was taken up by the Police Department in other parts of the State by enrolling a large number of students in the scheme and giving them methodical training and special uniforms. Currently, it has emerged as one of the largest student forces in the State that assist the local police in their various duties.
Mr. George said the Fest Force also had the potential to go Statewide during mass events, following the Kozhikode-model. “While the SPC acts as a full-time team, the Fest Force will work as a standby force, which will be used during big events in the city. They will need only a week’s training to undertake the job,” he said.
700-member force deployed during school arts festival
It will be a standby force to be used during big events
