Community Policing

Innovative Policing Schemes By Kolkata Police

"The legitimate object of Government is to do for a Community of People whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities"


Community Policing has gone much further than being a traditional police - community relations progamme, and has attempted to address crime control through a working partnership with the community. Community Institutions e.g., Families, Media, Educational Institutions, Social and Non-Governmental Organisations, Neighbourhood Associations are believed to be key partners with the police & their views have greater status under community policing.

There have always existed gaps in perception of matters between the police and the public. The later have always looked upon the police as an element or mechanism to be geared upon. They have therefore checked themselves from walking up to the men in uniform, to seek help and / or to report the occurrence of crime of any magnitude.

Things however seem to be changing in the last few decades and are still in the process of undergoing more changes. Police, all over, have developed ways and means to convince people that they are not the ones to be feared upon and that they can be approached at any given time when in distress.

To befriend the community, police forces all across the country and across the world have been devising new techniques and procedures, such as providing free medical and legal aid to the public.

Campaign against Drug Addiction, rehabilitation of Surrendered Criminals and Ex-convicts. In this regard, Kolkata Police is not far behind, rather, it has developed such measures which are much more acceptable to the ordinary public.

Kolkata Police has three main strands of Community Policing initiatives - Education, Health and Sports.

1. Providing health and educational support to street children.
2. A Blood donation programme for the public.
3. Kolkata Police Para-Football Friendship Cup Tournament : where sports serves as a vehicle to build police public relation.

Some other measures are -

• Awareness Workshops
• Bravery and Honesty Award
• Campaign Against Drug Abuse
• Claude Martin Fund
• Counseling Centres
• Inter-School Football
• Kiran
• Kolkata Police & Community Traffic Policing
• Kolkata Police & Bicycle Patrolling
• Kolkata Police & Diving Rescue Operation
• Kolkata Police & Pollution Control
• Kolkata Police & Street Children
• Kolkata Police Ban Cyber Porn At Cafes
• Kolkata Police Friendship Cup
• Kolkata Police Medical Assistance
• Nabadisha - A New Direction
• Police Assistance Booths
• Prabaha
• Pronam
• Pulse Polio Immunization Programme
• Sampark
• Training Of Kolkata Police Personnel

Future Plans

1. Involving retired police officers in forming consultative groups, to advise local citizens on matter relating to civic issues, law enforcement, etc.
2. Asking for feed back or opinion from the local population on police and policing thereby highlighting the areas where improvement can be achieved.
3. Institutionalising of Community Policing Programmes to ensure proper implementation and monitoring.
4. To make police more approachable to the younger generation i.e., students from schools and colleges, and to achieve this, sports could be a reasonably good vehicle.

More inter-school and inter-college football, cricket, carrom, etc. tournaments could be organised.

Sportsmen from Kolkata Police who have achieved a certain level of distinction in the field of martial arts could go to schools and give lessons in self-defence to students.

Trust is the Heart

Establishing and maintaining mutual trust is the central goal of community partnership. Trust will give the police greater access to valuable information that can lead to the prevention and detection of crime.

The cohesion between police and community brings together the power of the formal criminal justice system with the informal social control that communities can exert. Police departments have also been a catalyst in forging new partnerships with other professional and civic institutions. These new professional and community relationships allow for the development of long term, board based interventions that address the conditions that allow chronic problems to persist. By promoting a focus on positive interaction with youth, particularly in crime riddled hotspot neighbourhoods, the Community Policing Officers hope to help more young people grow up to become productive, law abiding citizens. One of the most powerful innovations of the past two decades, Community Policing has been cited as one reason for the recent decline in crime rates.