In what appears to be a case of sheer negligence on the part of Punjab police, many police stations in the provincial metropolis lack backup data of monitoring videos of the rooms of station house officers (SHOs) and lockups. In January, Punjab IGP Arif Nawaz Khan had ordered to install CCTV cameras inside lockups of all 722 police stations in Punjab to end incidents of torture in custody besides bridging gaps between public and police.
According to the plan, all RPOs and DPOs were directed to integrate the system with the central police office's monitoring and control room for the effective monitoring of alleged criminals and officials inside the police stations through these cameras. However, when the central police office recently sought CCTV footages of some police stations, it came to the light that they don't have the backup data which annoyed the IGP, sources said.
Meanwhile, they added, Arif Nawaz ordered all the DPOs and RPOs to ensure backup data of 15 days otherwise a strict legal action would be initiated against the negligent cops. The sources alleged that the cameras were never integrated with the system established at the CPO.
Subsequently, Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Ashfaq Khan chaired a high-level meeting at his office to review security and overall situation of police stations. SSP Operations Ismail-ur-Rehman Kharak, SP Security Muhammad Naveed, SP VVIP Security, SP Headquarter, SP CRO, all the divisional SPs and DSPs were also in attendance.
Speaking on this occasion, Ashfaq Khan said that effective policing could not be made possible without improving the Police culture, adding that concrete steps should be taken to stop incidents of molestation of children as well as other related crimes in the city. The senior officer made it clear that that the divisional SPs and circle officers are solely responsible for the functioning of CCTV cameras installed at police stations. "There will be zero tolerance on the functioning and record saving issues of these cameras installed inside the rooms of SHOs, front desks and lockups," he warned.
He said the CCTV cameras installed on Dolphin Squad and Police Response Unit's vehicles should also be kept in functional conditions whereas their data is safely recorded at the Punjab Safe Cities Authorities (PSCA).
In case of any emergency, the alarm system and respond mechanism of the police stations should be functional. The concerned departments should be requested in written to cancel the licenses of weapons if used in any criminal activity. Due to the administrative reforms and effective policing of Lahore police (operations wing), the sense of protection was improved among the citizens as a World Crime Index report graded Lahore at 214 place, declaring it a safer city with regard to criminal activities, the DIG concluded.
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