LAHORE: The monthly provincial conference of regional police officers and district police officers held at the Central Police Office on Friday discussed general crime situations, security requirements for upcoming law and order events and professional and welfare moves for morale-dwindling and ill-equipped police force.

The conference presided over by Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmad Sokhera and Additional IG Punjab Naseemuz Zaman in different time intervals also vowed to uphold ‘declining’ morale of the fighting force at all costs.

All Additional IGs, RPOs, the Lahore CCPO and DPOs participated in the conference and presented comparative crime statistics of their respective regions and districts.

Insiders told Dawn that the Rawalpindi division appeared to be a prime cause of concern for the provincial police commander who showed his dissatisfaction over increasing street crime and vehicle and motorcycle theft besides slow recovery process.

They said the Multan police region topped in terms of decrease in six heinous crime heads -- murder, dacoity/robbery with murder, dacoity/robbery, vehicle theft, vehicle snatching and kidnapping for ransom.

Insiders quoted the IGP as having said the complainants were not entertained by police in terms of recovery of their snatched and stolen items.

They said Lahore police authorities, who were facing increasing crime graphs, took a sigh of relief as Mr Sokhera left for attending a meeting by handing over chair to the Additional IG Punjab.

Insiders further said some DPOs highlighted problems of less availability of funds to fight crimes and trace cases.

Meanwhile, the conference approved a comprehensive security for Eidul Azha and cancelled Eid holidays of all operational staff for security duties.

The IGP put his focus on intensifying armed patrolling and setting up special pickets to control crimes and sacrificial animals’ theft ahead of Eid.

The meeting also reviewed the security policy for the upcoming month of Muharram and decided first time to especially train policemen before deployment for Muharram duties.

The IGP disclosed during the conference that at least 10 police stations in Lahore had been allocated Rs3.5 million to up-grade offices of Moharrars and computerize police record.

He ordered to introduce a “Pool” of inspectors and sub-inspectors for their postings as SHO in their respective districts, saying officials found involved in corruption or poor performance would be expelled from the pool.

The participants emphasized upon intelligence sharing among various law enforcing agencies to ensure recovery of stolen and snatched vehicles besides seeking cooperation in controlling street crimes.

Police officers were directed to launch crackdown on criminals involved in extortion and kidnapping for ransom.

The conference decided to post accountants against one position for a period of three-years. It was decided that alternate police force would be sent to Islamabad to replace existing force deployed for security of protesters at sit-ins.

It was also decided to finalize the proposals for training courses for policemen to be held under the supervision of army in the fields of weapon handling and counter terrorism.

The additional policemen deployed at the residences of retired and in-service police officers would be withdrawn, the IGP made it clear to his subordinates.

Mr Sokhera also directed the officers to ensure regular inspection of police lines and police stations in their respective regions besides checking morning drill of policemen.

The meeting discussed different initiatives for the welfare of policemen, police martyrs and their families.

It was decided in the meeting that 27 double cabin and 110 single cabin vehicles would be given to field officers for operational duties while the government had already approved 250 pick-ups for the department.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2014