‘My Beat My Pride’ launched to strengthen policing

A new initiative ‘My beat My pride’ (MBMP) was launched in the city on Friday to strengthen the beat policing system in Mangaluru Commissionerate jurisdiction.

Commissioner of Police Dr P S Harsha the MBMP system is unique and all senior officers, including the city police commissioner, will participate in beat policing along with the designated beat constable, to get first-hand information from the public.

The city police commissioner himself engaged in beat duty in beat number 7 of Mangaluru North Police Station from Kandathpalli Masjid to Mission Compound. Abandoning the official vehicle, he walked along with the beat constable and interacted with the public.

He said the new system strives to empower beat constables and further strengthen the beats. “From the commissioner up to the police sub-inspectors, all will join the beat constables at least once a month in beat policing. This will not only instil a sense of pride in performing the beat duties but will also help the senior officers in familiarising with the ground realities,” Harsha added.

As a result of this project, citizens are expected to get various benefits, like faster delivery of passport verification, job verification and others. It is also expected to reduce visits to police stations as they can follow up the progress of any complaints filed by them through the beat constable.

Harsha said there are 756 beats in Mangaluru City Police Commissionerate jurisdiction. Each beat will have representatives from the civil society who are drawn from all walks of life. A WhatsApp group (with 200 to 250 members) will be floated for the police constable in charge of the beat, police inspector of the concerned police station and a technical moderator from commissioner’s office will be in each group.

Further, the police intend to develop an app for enthusiastic participants so that they can actively participate in the delivery of beat-based police services (non-core areas of policing), thereby help the beat constable. At its conceptual stage, it will have features by which any interested member of civil society can log in and decide the date and time on which he is ready to offer his services towards the betterment of the police services.

Harsha said the central command system of the WhatsApp group will be at the commissioner office, which will collect all the suggestions from the public in the group and report to the commissioner every hour. The group will help the police to share official information among members, which will reach a large number of people in society.