Chennai, Sept 24 (BPNS)

The Coimbatore City police are planning for direct communication with the local population to prevent drug and ganja peddling in the community. A senior officer with the Coimbatore city police while speaking to BPNS said that this is an initiative wherein the police would directly interact with the public or take policing to the doorsteps.

He also said that officers are deployed in each area of the city to receive information from the general public on anti-social activities taking place in their respective areas. The main focus, according to officers is to curb drug peddling and the police are of the opinion that if the local public is taken into confidence, then there can be a direct effect to curbing the trafficking and peddling of drugs.

According to the Coimbatore City Police, police official working in each location is allocated areas under his jurisdiction and police will display boards with the contact numbers of the concerned officers. If the crime that is detected is in the jurisdiction of another police station, the officers would intimate that station.

The police are of the opinion that direct interaction with the police will give more confidence to the general public to open out on the activities including anti-social activities that were taking place in the area.

The community policing scheme involving local residential associations has been a major success in Kerala which is termed as ‘Janamaithri Policing’ wherein the deputed police personnel from each station meets the residential association office bearers once a week and get input on the activities taking place in the area. The telephone number and contact details of the police personnel are provided to the residential association office bearers who can contact the police personnel at any time irrespective of whether it is late at night or not.

The Coimbatore city police have fifteen police stations under four divisions and there are All Woman police stations also under it. The City police is planning to divide these areas and then provide one or two officers with charge of each mohalla or locality.

The Coimbatore police in a study conducted recently have also found that the mode of community policing would be more effective in curbing drug and ganja peddling.