In his efforts to make the police more public-friendly and improve their image, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has instructed all the police stations to display a board stating that complainant is an important person who is "doing a favour" by giving the police an opportunity to serve him/her.
Maria came up with this idea to make the police imbibe, and remind them, the basics of policing through the message board, said Deputy Police Commissioner (spokesperson) Mahesh Patil.
According to Patil, the Commissioner has instructed the officers to look at the victim as the most important person, and asked all the 92 police stations in the city to display a message, in both Marathi and English.
It reads: "A complainant is the most important person in our police station. He is not an interruption to our work; He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider for our station; He is a part of it. We are not doing a favour by serving him. He is doing a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so."
After taking charge as the commissioner last week, Maria, who hails from the city, promised service-oriented and public-friendly police force.
At a marathon meeting with police officers recently, he announced a slew of measures for safety and security of women and senior citizens, a drive against street crime, and against drug-supplying gangs, among others things.
The aim of the latest initiative is not only to make citizens or victims more comfortable visiting the police stations, but also to improve the image of the city police force, said senior police officers.
