CHARSADDA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are going through reformation process and steps have been taken to reduce trust deficit between the public and police. Also, crime ratio has been reduced significantly due to reforms in the police force.

These remarks were made by district police officer Sohail Khalid during a public forum on police reforms at TMA Hall, Charsadda. District nazim Fahad Riaz also spoke at the forum on the impact of police reforms in benefiting general public and addressing the trust deficit.

The event was attended by lawyers, councillors, youth representatives and women. The forum was part of the “Ulasi Police” project, which is an awareness and advocacy campaign undertaken by the Center for Research and Security Studies.

The endeavour aims to tackle the trust deficit between the public and police, and help the police become an accountable and community-focussed force.

Mr Khalid said that the reforms had so far been instrumental in reducing public-police gap and improving people’s access to police. The reforms have three broad categories with initiatives for i) capacity building of police, ii) structural changes and iii) community engagement and policing.

He said that at the core of capacity building initiatives were six training schools, including Police School of Investigation, Peshawar; Police School of Intelligence, Abbottabad; Police School of Explosive Handling, Nowshera; Police School of Disorder and Riot Management, Mardan; Police School of Information Technology, Peshawar; and Police School of Tactics, Peshawar.

He claimed that the crime ratio had been reduced by 60 per cent in the province. He said that the promotion system had been linked to the performance.

The district nazim said that police in KP were free from political influence and every citizen was treated equally by them.

He stressed that people should cooperate with police for curbing crimes in the society..

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016