Offensive and reactive policing shall be adopted against criminals instead of soft and defensive policing for the protection of the lives and property of citizens, newly-ppointed Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir said during his maiden press conference at his office on Tuesday.
Articulating his priorities before the media, the CCPO said that if criminals opened fire on police, they would respond in a tit-for-tat manner. “No one in the department shall be allowed to rest in air-conditioned offices,” Tahir said, claiming he would personally patrol the city accompanied by the divisional SPs from the Operations and Investigations Wings.
Tahir, flanked by DIG Operations, Lahore Rao Sardar Ali Khan and SSP Investigation Abdul Razzaq Cheema, said he looked to the media and citizens for help. He said he would take his cues from the media to purge the police force of black sheep within its ranks and clean the city of outlaws.
Extra judicial killings: Asked about extra judicial killings via staged encounters, the CCPO said, “If kidnappers continue to demand ransom and robbers continue to rampage through banks and homes and fire upon police, then police will not sit silent. The era of soft and defensive policing is over in Lahore and criminals shall be dealt with an iron hand.”
Raza claimed the nature of crimes has changed and police must respond accordingly. He told the media that lists of influential land grabbers, drug pushers, extortionists and prostitution dens had been prepared and police were ready to flush them out of the city.
‘SHO responsible for crime’: He further said that the SHO concerned would be responsible for criminal activity in his area and departmental action would be taken against guilty SHOs without discrimination. Asked if he would bring his own team of officers, Tahir said he was only concerned with performance no matter if one was a PSP, ranker or a ‘mummy daddy’ officer.
Investigations and Operations wings to unite: To another question, the CCPO promised that the Investigation Wing and Operations Wing shall now work as a team and the rift between the two would be transformed into friendship.
The CCPO was confident that citizens would help dismantle the ‘network of terrorists’ in the city. He said records of tenants shall be verified to ensure ‘terrorists’ do not stay in Lahore under a strangers’ disguise.
Tahir also announced that police would set up new Reporting Centers at the offices of divisional SPs where citizens could register instead of the police station concerned. The SSP Admin and SSP Discipline were also present on the occasion.
Era of defensive policing over, says CCPO
