The police forces functioning in any metropolis in the world face multiple challenges on a daily basis. Lahore is no different. Police data has revealed that almost 50 percent victims of crime and accident are satisfied with the city police’s response. While the police force of Lahore has faced an uphill struggle to improve its efficiency, reports indicate that there is a tangible improvement. The department has installed a state of the art system to collect public feedback to know the efficacy of its patrol divisions, motorcycle squads, and special investigation units in order to better counter criminals.
The feedback presents a highly varied spectrum of responses. Nearly twenty percent of the victims of crime and accident feel that the police response was highly positive while as many people reported the response to be highly negative. This can be explained by an observation that police patrols are more efficient in upscale neighbourhoods while the low-income neighbourhoods, where crime is more frequent; the police still remain an inaccessible and unapproachable force.
A large part of the problem remains the thousands of fake callers everyday that prove to be an impediment in the police force’s official duties and response time. What is worse is that the police cannot take legal action against all the fake callers because they are in such large numbers. According to the latest data, at least 5,647 people contacted the police by phone on Monday. Out of this number, the police registered 493 calls while 4,173 were fake calls. The people of this city have an utter lack of civic responsibility as is visible by this highly despicable practice of prank calling. Awareness must be created against this practice so that those who consider calling a harmless prank know the repercussion of their actions.
The city police department also noted 20 minutes as an average police response time to the calls. While this is definitely an improvement, the response time needs to be lessened to reach an ideal time of ten minutes. In October, the Lahore police had launched a new fleet of patrol cars to help curb crime and improve response. More than 200 customised Toyota Corolla cars, equipped with cameras, megaphones, searchlights, and first-aid kits, are on city roads as part of the police response unit. The Chief of the Lahore Operations Police Dr Haider Ashraf insists that the concept of “digital monitoring and smart policing” is helping his department in many ways. But the true impact is yet to be seen. Although improved, the police needs to become more approachable to the general public, not only to those who live in the influential part of town.