October 08, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 14, 1427

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LAHORE, Oct 7: The posts of Supervisory Police Officers (SPOs) in every police station and those of Investigations DSPs are being withdrawn from five big cities in the province from next week, re-introducing the offices of SDPOs (DSPs).

“We are reintroducing old police circles, placing two or three police stations under the command of a DSP. They (DSPs) will also head investigation and operational wings of these police stations,” sources informed Dawn on Saturday.

The sources said the existing system of policing would remain the same in small cities and rural areas in the province.

SPOs were appointed some times ago to keep an eye on the working of SHOs and their teams to make them perform their duty efficiently.

Investigations DSPs were also appointed in order to separate operational and investigation wings of police in accordance with the Police Order 2002.

Sources said the SPOs were being withdrawn in view of the fact that their very presence in police stations had robed SHOs of their `freedom to work independently’ because of undue supervision.

The arrangement had also reduced SPOs’, all of them SDPOs (DSPs) or ASPs, working to the level of SHOs, snatching from them their edge of seniority and bringing their status down from commanding to operational officers.

In addition, there were no arrangements like offices, staff and vehicles for the SPOs, and it looked that they were encroaching upon the authority of SHOs, and their staff

Similarly, the sources said, the introduction of Investigations DSPs had also confused the command structure, making overall supervision difficult.

From next week, the tested system of circles would be reintroduced in Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Faisalabad. Each SDPO would head two big or three small police stations and sit in one of them having proper office and staff.

The SDPO would also head both the operation and investigation wings of the police stations under his command to ensure uniformity in policing at the basic level. The recombination of the wings would help eliminate complaints regarding different approaches towards detecting, registering, and investigating crime.

The SDPOs would supervise police stations, write “zimnis” (secondary reports) and convey orders of higher authorities to the SHOs.