LAHORE: The Punjab government has approved Rs.910 million funds for raising Dolphin Force (DF) on the pattern of Istanbul’s Dolphin police to curb the increasing street crime in the city, The News has learnt.
The chief minister while chairing a meeting held on February 26, 2015 in Model Town directed the Lahore commissioner to arrange sites for the establishment of Dolphin offices and building s within two days. He also directed the police authorities that the Dolphin Squad should be selected out of newly recruited/under training constables. The DF would be equipped with modern gadgets for its quick response to a crime. The officials of the DS would be provided 250 CC motorcycles. The patrolling units would be tracked down through Global Positioning System (GPS). Initially this project would be started in Lahore.
The Punjab police had submitted the PC-I of Dolphin Force to the Punjab Planning & Development Department (P&D) with an estimated cost of Rs.911.58 million for technical & critical review. It was stated the cost of the project might be increased as the Turkhis police experts want purchase of 500 CC motorcycles instead of 250 CC proposed by the provincial government. Twenty- five trainers headed by a police officer of SP rank left Turkey to attend a two month training programme. They would train the cops selected for the force.
All patrol units would be observed by the GPS tracking and field commander posting would be based on crime and crowd concentration and their activities would be monitored on daily basis. The DF patrol units would be deployed on crime hotspots, daily and seasonal population movements. An SP rank officer would head Command Centr, while areas would be bifurcated among Saggian Bridge, Iqbal Town, Harbanspura, Chunhng, Civil Lines, and Model Town with 50 motorcycles each. The total strength of the force would be 1800 constables, 60 Assistant Sub Inspectors, 15 Sub-Inspectors, four DSPs and an SP and they would perform their duties in three shifts.
The DF would be equipped with 300 motorcycles, 10 mini-buses with field support, 600 camera-body cams, 200 GPS locators, and 300 radios. A special uniform has been designed for the DF. The cops who would patrol on bikes would be equipped with helmets with wireless radio, small arms, handcuffs, GPS tracking device, cameras and other gadgets. One unit will respond in emergency to at least 30 citizens a day and 100 units would respond to minimum 3000 people daily.
(The News)
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