Cops will provide basic training to the enrollees to take their assistance during natural calamities
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad City Police are aiming to raise an army of volunteers who will assist them during natural calamities like flash floods or breach of tanks.
Having witnessed the active participation of citizens especially youth alongside the City Police and the disaster management teams during the recent flash floods, the police has come up with the idea.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner, Anjani Kumar told ‘Telangana Today’ that the police will be providing basic training to the citizens who enrol as volunteers.
Citizens are the first responders to any crisis, be it a fire mishap, building collapse or flash floods, he said. “During the recent floods, we had situations wherein our personnel guided the citizens through video calls and they bailed out fellow residents who were stuck in the inundated colonies and flooded streets without wasting time,” the Commissioner said.
In several videos making rounds on social media during the recent flash floods, groups of youngsters were seen using ropes to shift the families from inundated areas to safer places.
Apart from disaster management, the City Police also intends to train the volunteers in different aspects such as cybercrime and sexual harassment, with the help of trained resource personnel so that they can help the common man. “The training will be organised after the coronavirus pandemic subsides. As of now, we are planning how to go ahead with the task of training and enrolling the volunteers,” Anjani Kumar said.
The Hyderabad City Police already have 11,000 volunteers who are mostly confined to assist the police during religious processions and elections.
Anjani Kumar said volunteers play an important role in any institution and reiterated the adage of noted police official Sir Robert Peel, creator of the metropolitan police in England during the 18th century, that ‘every citizen is a policeman and every policeman is a citizen’.
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