In a move to enhance police public partnership, coinciding with the celebration of 47th Police Raising day on 1 September, the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) launched a new project called “Friends of Police.”
The first eleven volunteers with representation from civil service, business community and film industry were enrolled under the Police Public Partnership.
At the launch, the volunteers were issued a jacket inscribed “Friends of Police”, an Identity card along with the Khaddar by the Chief of Police Brigadier Kipchu Namgyal besides introducing them to the congregation of high level guests.
The goal of the project, according to the police, is to recall all elements of the police, community and local government to work in solidarity to search for solutions to ensure security and safety within the individual communities.
The police chief said that such a project will take police service to the community and also make community aware of police duties and functions. “With first eleven volunteers registered today, we’re aiming to rope in as many in the partnership by taking the project to all 20 Dzongkhags,” said the police chief.
The works and human settlement minister, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba said, it is a very positive and a sincere effort to bring down crime in the country.
“Friends of Police” is also geared to instigate community participation not only in self policing but to help bring two parties closer. But equally important, it is also an attempt to professionalize police service to make it prompt and effective.
The “friends of police” are expected to partner in fire fighting and any other disasters while also participating in community patrolling. Besides, they will also help police in crowd control during major events, traffic safety and giving guidance to pedestrians, counseling and also to interact with police in problem solving.
The main essence remains to foster and transpire goodwill for the police that exist among our citizens. It is to transform the police image, open up channels of communications and provide a reservoir of goodwill, feedback, intelligence and manpower.
The chief of police said the rationale behind choosing the first eleven volunteers is for the good omen towards success of the project. Eleven is the dice number of AP Geynyen, the main protecting deity of Bhutan.
One of the volunteer, Ugyen Tshering with the Information and Communication Services (ICS) of Ministry of Agriculture and Forests said “I am looking forward to work closely with police towards fostering bond between police and community”.
For Bap Tandy of Forest Fire Management Section also of Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, it was a long awaited opportunity for him to repay the gratitude to the police.
As per the statistic with the police, Thimphu alone has witnessed 1043 counts of crimes in 2009, 2543 in 2010 and already 1207 till May last year. The crime committed in the capital averages to staggering 1250 counts. This outnumbers the crimes committed in 19 Dzongkhags combined.
For instance, in 2009, all added crimes in 19 Dzongkhags were only 1797 seeing a small drop to 1656 in 2010. Only 806 crimes were reported till May from other Dzongkhags exclusive of Thimphu, the capital city. From this, it can be deduced that crime is concentrated in the capital.
There are 3,975 police personnel including 246 women with the RBP and 97 civilians with 113 personnel are undergoing training.
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Can anyone tell me what happened to chief n his adali case? This what happens in GNH country, big fish escapes n small fishes like captain n major are caught n sentenced. Salute to Bhutan law. This chief justice Sonam tobgay talks so big but don’t do anything.l big mouth