While reforming police is critical for strengthening rule of law in KP, concurrently, educating public about their roles and responsibilities is also crucial to ensure a just, enlightened and crime-free society, Mr. Sahibzada Sajjad Ahmed, SP Security, Peshawar spoke during a consultative meeting of working group on police reforms in Peshawar. He added that the collective vision of the KP police leadership is driving all these reforms to turn KP police into an organization oriented for public service. The initiatives like Criminal Record Verification System (CRVS), Identity Verification System (IVS), and Vehicle Verification System (VVS) are some important developments to achieve the milestones for crime control and public facilitation. The School of Intelligence has significantly improved the intelligence gathering and spot analysis skills of KP police and has thus addressed the issues hampering counter-terrorism and crime-control roles of police. He also said that the citizens who have interacted with the police after reforms so far had found visible changes and were all-praise for the reformation. The most important community policing development in the KP police is the establishment of Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs). DRC is a restorative justice system which has immensely reduced the burden of civil cases on police station and helped focusing on the investigation of important cases and on their core crime-control and CT roles.

The meeting was a part of the project “Ulasi Police”, which is an awareness and advocacy campaign undertaken by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) – as part of USAID Small Grants and Ambassadors’ Fund Program – to strengthen the rule of law in KP province by promoting and disseminating the significant police reforms aimed at incorporating local communities’ policing needs and international human rights standards. The endeavor aims to tackle the trust deficit between the public and police, help KP police become an accountable and community-focused police force.

The participating members of community said the initiatives like Ulasi Police are some inspiring examples for KP police to strengthen their linkages with public and interact with them periodically. They said that the KP police authorities should be considerate of the challenges and issues facing the policemen at lower level. Their emoluments should be at part with other provinces and duty hours be revised and realistic. Especial attention should be given to capacity building for behavioral and attitudinal changes.