1. Community Policing in India
Reaching the Unreached?
Dr.C.Muthuraja, M.A, M.Phil, PhD
Former Secretary, Indian Society of Criminology-Madurai Branch
@ Dean of Self Financed Programmes &
Associate Professor in Economics
The American College, Madurai – 625 002, TAMILNADU
Email: cmuthuraja@gmail.com (M-094863 73765)
(Presented at Rotary Club of Madurai East, Madurai on 21.04.2015)
SINCE 1881

2. CONTENTS
♦ Introduction
♦ Police and National Development
♦ Police Administration & Community Policing
♦ The Friends of Police
♦ Area Committees
♦ City Vigilance Committees
♦ Interface with Pressure Groups
♦ Slum Adoption Scheme
♦ Complaint Box System
♦ Bravery and Honesty Award
♦ Towards Crimefree Society!?
SINCE 1881

3. Introduction
♦ Community policing- its roots in ancient
Indian history
♦ Concept of ‘crime reduction through
community partnership’
♦ When traditional policing activities failed to
deliver tangible reductions in local crime
rates, this significant shift in the traditional
policing paradigm led to the increased use
of one important policing strategy
SINCE 1881

4. Community Policing
♦ Engaging the community in crime reduction
and prevention allows a more targeted
approach to local priorities
♦ By empowering the community to identify
and
♦ Respond to local concerns
♦ Police and National Development
♦ Police Administration & Community
Policing
SINCE 1881

5. The Friends of Police
♦ holistic and proactive concept that lends a
psychological approach to policing
♦ opportunities for ordinary citizens to effectively
contribute to the prevention and detection of crime
♦ Beats and night Patrols
♦ Assistance in traffic
♦ Crime prevention
♦ Information collection
♦ Assistance in Law and Order Maintenenance
♦ Involvement in Prohibition Work
SINCE 1881

6. Area & City Vigilance Committees
♦ Area Committees were formed and they
were taught all aspects of community
policing which helped them to trace and
resolve small local issues
♦ City Vigilance Committees were formed
to prevent incidence of property crimes and
to give information on the designs and
whereabouts of absconding terrorists
SINCE 1881

7. Interface
SINCE 1881
♦ Interface with Pressure Groups-interacted
with various pressure groups like Indian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
lawyers, professors, students, doctors +++
♦ Police Interface-Effective student police
interaction helped the police to reconstruct
peace and harmony. The students were
deputed when there was a shortage in police
station staff to check vehicles on the roads,
check baggage in Railway Stations and Bus
Stands etc

8. Proactive Policing
♦ Slum Adoption Scheme-adopted to
disengage slum dwellers from engaging in
any anti social activity in future and to
secure easy access for the police into the
slums. The main objective was to detect and
prevent crime through proactive policing
♦ Beat Officers’ System-The city was
divided into beat zones and each beat was
manned by constable(s) called Beat Officers
SINCE 1881

9. Police: Responsive, Transparent and
Interactive
♦ Complaint Box System- Complaint Boxes were
kept at different locations of the city to receive
information from public who may prefer to remain
unidentified and yet participate in their effort to
assist the police
♦ Wide Area Network (W.A.N) : linking all police
stations and offices with Internet connectivity and
email service. brought the police closer to the
public, making the police more responsive,
transparent and interactive
SINCE 1881

10. Help Line
SINCE 1881
♦ Help Line for Distressed Women-To
reach to those women who need help and to
receive distress calls round the clock by a
team of police, activists and students
♦ Separation of Law and Order and
Investigation at Police Stations-Detective
wings have been created exclusively for
investigation of crime especially of a
heinous nature

11. EXAMPLE
SINCE 1881
♦ Women Cell-established in all districts - manned
by lady investigating officers so that victims of
woman related crimes can express themselves
freely without hesitation to the women officers as
compared to their male counterparts
♦ Sports Activity- organizes the Friendship
Tournament
♦ Bravery and Honesty Award-Police organizes
this award ceremony every year- Citizens are
selected for their acts of bravery and honesty and
are felicitated so that others follow the examples
set by them

12. Counseling
SINCE 1881
♦ Counseling Centres-The Detective
Department of the Police along with several
leading NGOs - counseling centres for
women, juveniles, elders, drug or alcohol
addicts manned by trained counselors and
psychiatrists
♦ Claude Martin Fund-Financial assistance
to deserving ex-prisoners through the
Claude

13. Why Community Policing ?
SINCE 1881
♦ Recognizes that community members can work
together with law enforcement agencies and play
an active role in reducing local crime
♦ Beneficial to society
♦ Community
♦ Specific advantages
♦ Police
♦ Specific benefits
♦ Shared benefits

14. Reaching the Unreached
Towards Crimefree Society!?
SINCE 1881
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