The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Community Police Center (CPC), Thimphu Police Division, Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), is conducting intensive door-to-door sensitization programs on crime prevention to the residents in various community neighborhoods in the capital city, starting from March 2016.
Such sensitization programs are aimed at creating awareness so that the residents in Thimphu understand such crimes and seek the necessary assistance from the police. In addition to burglary prevention measures, sensitization on domestic violence and drug related issues is also part of the program.
“This is another way of taking police service to the door steps of local residents,” police said.
CPC alerted the people on the importance of having interlocking door lock system placed on the doors, and proper latching of windows. In addition, police said, the people should inform their neighbor when leaving their houses for a certain duration. Police also warned people to avoid keeping their house keys underneath the door footmat.
In addition, CPC encouraged the house owners to install CCTV in corridors or at the main entry for proper monitoring, and to immediately report suspicious characters to police. Illuminating the surroundings at night, not keeping things in car and to take necessary steps to avoid falling easy prey to crime and criminals were discussed.
In-order to catch maximum residents, CPC is conducting the awareness program after 5 pm for two to three hours. Police said, “We could cover only 15 to 16 building since the door- to- door sensitization.” Police said it is a challenging job because it consumes more time than what they thought. It takes more than an hour to cover each building and it is difficult to get hold of every resident.
“The other challenge that we face is, we have to re-visit the house if we can’t make it out in our first round of sensitization as our aim is to sensitize every household on crime prevention,” police said.
Meanwhile, Tshering Pelmo, a resident of Olokha said that, RBP is taking a good initiative to sensitize the people on crime prevention. “Before we used to be a bit careless about our house, we didn’t have the interlock, but now with such initiative, I am planning on using an interlocking system. Also I now know the value of being close to our neighbor,” she said.
Another resident, Dechen Wangmo, said it is every individual’s responsibility to know about crime prevention.
She said, “This is not the duty of RBP alone, but we should be responsible also. We should not be careless and ignore the fact. RBP is doing its job and we appreciate what they are doing for the benefit of the community.”
