Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Saturday said Bangladesh is reaping the benefits of community policing like other countries in the world.
He further said, “Community policing has a lot of responsibilities. But we can't deploy police from house to house to maintain law and order.”
He made these remarks while speaking at the inauguration of Community Policing Day at Rajarbagh Police Lines in the capital Dhaka.
The minister said, “The police are gradually becoming the police of the people. In the early days of coronavirus, we saw that after the death of father, the son was afraid to take their bodies for burial. But the police personnel came forward and completed the burial of the bodies with responsibility.”
Policemen have been working as front fighters at the risk of their lives during coronavirus pandemic. Now the police are slowly going to the place that Bangabandhu dreamt of with the police, he further said.
The country is moving forward fast under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The police personnel are also working hard to ensure country's security.
Regarding community policing, he said, "In 50-60 years ago, we used to see that the police went to rural areas a day after the complaint was lodged. The situation was similar in many places of Dhaka.” “At that time, ‘Matabbars’ and the chairmen were playing the role of police. The police used to go and get help from them. The police would go to them and get all the news from them. The police used to take action as per information obtained from them,” the home minister continued.
He also told that the idea of community police is the same. Community police can alert the community and prevent crime before it happens. So, we started community policing. Many countries around the world have benefited from community policing, and we are also getting benefits.
Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said community policing has many responsibilities. We can't deploy police at every house to maintain law and order.
He opined that many incidents will not happen if the common people are aware and give information to the law enforcers.
We believe that we can prevent many incidents, he added.
Dr Zafar Iqbal, former professor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Benazir Ahmed and DMP Commissioner Md Shafiqul Islam and other senior police officials, among others were present at the programme.