Bengaluru: Close to the heels of a four-day-old baby getting stolen from Bowring Hospital, the city police have enhanced their links with community policing members to deal with such cases.
Recently with the help of a community policing volunteer, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Shivanna, attached to Madivala police station, reunited a 3-year-old girl Kavya, who got lost while accompanying her mother in a busy market area. The police reunited the girl with her mother, not before reprimanding the latter for her carelessness.
The incident happened on October 2, around 5:30 pm, when ASI Shivanna was carrying out rounds in a Hoysala patrol jeep, making announcements about incidents of chain snatching and mugging and warning the public on the Kodichikkanahalli main road in Madivala. He spotted a 3-year-old girl near the road, who was crying bitterly and a woman was trying to pacify the toddler.
Shivanna enquired whom the child belonged to, but nobody could answer. Shivanna informed his seniors who told him not to leave the child alone. It was then the ASI called up Shankar, an Area Suraksha Mitra (ASM), who accompanied him, making announcements regarding an unattended child.
Shankar, had a fair idea about the locality the child could belong to and they concentrated on that particular area. To their luck, in less than an hour, the mother of the child, who was frantically searching for her daughter, approached the police to claim the child. She thanked the men in khaki for ensuring safety of her toddler.
“ASM are citizen volunteers who are given requisite training and awareness on community policing. They are an asset to the police and they enhance the safety and security of the neighbourhood. By and large they are aware of the issues in their community and thus assist the police to enhance the safety and security of the neighbourhood,” Major General Prasad, Programme Co-ordinator from Janaagraha, an organisation that is active on community policing.
