When good samaritans came to the rescue
New Delhi: From catching snatchers to preventing fraud and averting thefts, in more than 600 cases this year, common citizens have helped Delhi Police to either solve or prevent crimes. "They are the force multiplier. We can't be everywhere but these people keep tabs and inform us about any suspicious activities. They have also caught criminals," a senior official said.
According to police, they have started several community-policing initiatives in which they inducted ordinary citizens to make ground-level policing more effective. "Prahari, Eyes and Ears scheme, Police Mitra were some of their community policing initiatives where citizens are involved in maintaining law and order," an official said.
Under the Police Mitra scheme, more than 1,700 people are on record and 49 cases (data up to June 25) were solved with assistance from these good samaritans; whereas 470 of them have actively prevented crimes. Over 1,200 members are enrolled under Prahari and they have helped Delhi Police to solve 21 cases up to June 25; whereas under the Eyes and Ears scheme, over 31,000 people have been enrolled and have helped investigators to solve over 190 cases.
In the South district, a team of the Saket police station had arrested one Chidubem Gabriel Okafor (37), a native of Nigeria, for cheating people on the pretext of making them business partners for the sale of herbal seeds, oils, foreign currency, gold parcels. Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Thakur said that they arrested the accused with the help of one security guard who had informed police after noting suspicious behaviour of the accused. Meanwhile, in the New Delhi area, three people including the victim caught a mobile snatcher. They were rewarded by Additional DCP (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav.
According to police officials, private security guards, vendors, parking attendants, drivers, residents and other people have regularly helped them to maintain safety and security in the Capital. They gather vital information and then inform policemen.
According to the data, more than 3,000 meetings were conducted face-to-face and after the COVID-19 outbreak and police also interacted with them over 200 times through video conferencing.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Southern Range) Devesh Srivastava said these citizens are very helpful in maintaining law and order in the area. "They conduct patrolling with police personnel and also have performed COVID-19 duties," he said, adding that they regularly sensitise security guards on important issues like cybersecurity. The data further shows that in more than 60 cases were solved in one of the districts with the help of common people.
