Dolphin Force seeks firing simulator

Aug 05, 2019

LAHORE: Keeping in view the increasing incidents of shooting citizens during encounters with criminals, Dolphin Force of Lahore Police has planned to move a summary to the Punjab IGP for the purchase of at least one firing simulator to control such incidents.

One simulator costs at least Rs 20 million. Due to budget constraints, the force is expecting its installation with the financial assistance from Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), the way it provided to Islamabad and Karachi police recently.

SP Dolphin and PRU (Police Response Unit) Bilal Zafar while talking to The News said that he has been preparing a draft to move a summary for the firing simulator. He added different scenarios provided in the simulator would help the first responders to avoid miscalculated firings. He said he has ordered the force not to open fire even if a suspect flees.

However, if any criminal opens fire at the Dolphin team then they are allowed to open fire in self-defence with minimum collateral damage. On April 29, 2019, a state of the art firing simulator was inaugurated at Police Lines Headquarters Islamabad to provide personnel with better training and practicing facilities. The simulator was set up with the financial assistance from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), Department of Justice, USA.

Earlier, the INL had also provided shooting simulators to the Saeedabad police training college in Karachi on December 12, 2018 with the cost of 2.7 million dollars to impart proper firearms training for police personnel. After assuming the charge of Dolphin Force and PRU for having a different experience of policing as compared to district police, SP Bilal Zafar started endeavouring to bring crime rate down in the provincial metropolis. He said Dolphin Force has been showing outstanding performance in 200 beats out of total 277 beats in the provincial metropolis. He claimed the crime rate should have gone up due to the socio-economic indicators but the target oriented working of Dolphin Force has helped decreasing the crime ratio.

To a question, he said a number of areas like Manawan and Naulakha are not covered by the Dolphin Force. He went on to say that the response time of Dolphin and PRU is being recorded better than the international standard response time. SP told Dolphins are responding to the emergencies within 5 to 7 minutes. With the better traffic management and flow, the response time would further improve, Bilal claimed.

To another query about the involvement of Dolphins and PRUs in corruption, Bilal Zafar said it is one out of 10 as compared to the district police.

About the behavioral training and capacity building, the SP said they have been arranging lectures of journalists and professors to help boosting their morale and better handling of different situations without losing temper. SP Bilal Zafar also said that there is an operations room in the Dolphin Headquarters for monitoring the force during patrolling to get optimum results. He said the response time, snap checking, movement, idleness and patrolling is being checked in the Ops room to maintain the working standard of the force.

According to the official data available with The News, Dolphin Squads and PRUs responded to 21805 calls of Rescue 15 from January, 01, 2019 to June 30, 2019 during patrolling. The Force checked 1835781 persons, 2809046 motorbikes and 158050 vehicles during snap checking.

The force claimed to have busted 130 gangs and arrested 351 street criminals during patrolling while it also faced 11 encounters. During the aforementioned period, the force also arrested 4173 other criminals involved in different crimes. Dolphins and PERUs also claimed to have recovered huge cache of weapons, booty and valuables.

The data also shows Dolphin Force leaves no chance left to help community in a bid to promote community policing. The force reunited 118 lost children with their parents and helped 926 people during the breakdown of their vehicles. The Dolphins also restored traffic flow at 743 places which was halted due to different reasons while it handed over 102 lost items to their real owners.

Dolphins also provided first aid 599 victims of road traffic accidents and guided 1672 people involved in different situations. Dolphins also helped 888 old aged people including men and women in crossing roads.

The force was brought on roads in Lahore on March 24, 2016 to control street crimes through patrolling. Two months back Dolphin Squad high-ups had designed a refresher course. They had identified at least 40 incidents of excesses by Dolphin since its launch as case studies.

(The News)

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