Mumbai: In an effort to maintain law and order and peace and tranquility in the respective areas, the police are taking all the efforts they can to achieve this goal. For this purpose, the police are building a good intelligence network, as this can be the police’s strongest support system to achieve the goal. The police made use of this technique as they usually do this year also during the Id-ul-Fitr. The counting of votes was on May 23 and the election results came at a time when Ramzan was being observed and correspondingly in line with the results of the elections Id was also observed which was a very challenging phase for the police as instances of hate crimes in various parts of the country added to the existing tension. During festival seasons, the threat to disrupt communal harmony is high. The social media platforms have made the threat even greater as the persons involved in such crimes find it easier to achieve their goal through these platforms. In such a situation, the police officials said the best or the only option is to join hands with citizens to keep themselves informed of activities round the clock. It has been a successful effort on our part as the police personal within my jurisdiction have been successfully maintaining a personal interaction with the public and thereby have succeeded in winning and maintaining the public confidence in the police. Simultaneously the police have successfully managed in cultivating informants through the public, said an Inspector with the Dongri police station. The police personal made it a point during the entire month of Ramzan, in Dongri, Pydhonie and MRA Marg to be present on the streets before the people came out for their morning Sehri and prayers. The motive behind this was to mingle with them and to prevent persons from involving in illegal activities. A Zone 1 police officer said by being in the profession of interacting with people on a daily basis helps the police officer in learning how to read between the lines. A constant vigil is essential in order to understand an upcoming issue. This requires hard work and communication between the team and the people. Nothing happens in an instant. The preparations made by the police for the day of Id this year commenced at midnight forecasting that untoward incidents could occur over something as trivial as parking space, so the police, along with personnel from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, cleared all parking spaces near mosques and prayer halls in order to ensure a peaceful atmosphere is maintained. A police officer said as many as 13 hours we spend at work because of the nature of our work. This time is utilized to meet the maximum number of people and develop a relationship with them. The effort that we put comes handy to us as it helps on crucial occasions like Id, when all of the goodwill we gather is put to use. The police personal make it a point to involve themselves with the festivals that the citizens celebrate and exchange greetings with them. Meanwhile they also keep an eye out for potential problems. Mr. Sajid Supariwala a Bhendi Bazaar resident and Vice President of Shiv Vahatuk Sena, Shiv Sena, praised the police and said that the police have managed to keep the entire city safe and peaceful with their networking and team efforts. The month of Ramzan passed out peacefully due to their efforts and cooperation. Simultaneously, the police also focus on battling the terror menace. For this purpose the police make use of units like the Mills Special, the premier intelligence for gathering machinery for the police force, as well as setting up Anti-Terror Cells in each police station to focus exclusively on anti-terror measures. The monitoring of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are done on a constant basis by the police through the Social Media lab as they keep an eye on inflammatory posts and report potentially problematic content to the websites, requesting that they be blocked. A senior officer with the Mumbai Police said, WhatsApp is very hard to monitor and control. Tracing of the origin of the message that is circulated is almost next to impossible. The intelligence network comes handy as we have a trusted bank of citizen informants, who alert us of any such messages in time. We have to reciprocate their trust by swiftly giving clarifications of our own. ]]>
