Q1 2012-13
Janaagraha Quarterly Report
Janaagraha Quarterly Report
The Community Policing programme is a Civil Defence Initiative that trains citizens to actively create safer neighbourhoods and stronger communities. In conjunction with the Civil Defence, a unit of the police, it trains people in first aid, emergency response and disaster management. It is hoped that the programme’s Area Suraksha Mitras (ASMs) will become catalysts for solving neighbourhood crime and safety issues.
In 2012-13 this programme will focus on the launch of its website – Mysuraksha.com. It will also institute
an SMS service for citizens which will allow them to send reports via mobile. To ensure momentum in
the institutionalisation of Community Policing, the programme will be tracking the number of Minutes of
Meetings (MOMs) received from meetings between the police and civil defence. Another important action
item is to conduct a baseline survey to create a ‘Security Threat Perception Index’ – this will later be
used to assess the effectiveness of the programme.
The SMS service was to be run by the local police. However, due to internally related issues, this facility has been stalled. Therefore, this KPI was not met for Q1. In addition, as no time frame has been provided by the police as to when this facility will be actively reinstated, Janaagraha is not in a position to provide a future schedule.
The programme also failed to meet its target with respect to MOMs. This was due to a decrease in the frequency of meetings between police and civil defence. This situation was unknown to Janaagraha at the time of writing the BSC goals.
The programme achieved its goal of conducting the baseline survey of households belonging to its pilot area – Banaswadi beat 4. This survey, which involved a combination of 15 volunteers and field associates, surveyed some 300 households. The data has been subsequently used to create a ‘Security Threat Perception Index’ for the area. According to this index, citizens rated the security situation as an 8.8 (with 10 being the worst).
Due to lack of support for the SMS facility, several key members of the programme have been in talks with the Chief Secretary. This has resulted in an advisory group being set up consisting of three ex DGs and IGP of Police. Related to this, Community Policing will now be implemented in seven police stations in Bangalore. This initiative has been undertaken in an effort to get the programme running and get police support.
