LAHORE: In order to promote community policing and bridging public-police trust deficit, newly-appointed Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umar Sheikh has said that all the divisional superintendents of police (SPs), for now on, would personally visit the residences of people affected during any criminal activity.

"If I could not reach the residences of victims personally due to any reason then my SPs would go there and inquire about their problems. The purpose of this exercise is to realize the affected families that we are with them," CCPO Umar told the media on Sunday after visiting the house of a father and son who were injured in a robbery bid at their shop in jurisdiction of Old Anarkali police station a couple of days ago.

During his stay, Sheikh asked questions from the victims about the whole incident and informed them that the suspect(s) have been traced and their arrest will be ensured soon.

He said the Punjab government will provide financial assistance to the victims. "We will take effective and concrete steps against the street criminals and will not let them escape," the CCPO said while underlining his priorities as the metropolitan police chief. Responding to a query regarding GPS location of the officers, Umar said that all the SPs have been ordered to share their locations daily on the already created WhatsApp group.

"In the past, we often witnessed absence of officers from their offices. The principal of sharing WhatsApp location in the group will not only ensure their attendance in the offices but in the field as well," he hoped. To another query, he said that lists of land grabbers have been prepared and the Punjab police have started taking stern actions against such elements.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020