LAHORE - The police department has begun homework to extend the scope of Dolphin Force to another four big cities of the Punjab province.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently approved the establishment of Dolphin Force to control street crimes in Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala. The initiative of smart patrolling police on the pattern of Turkish national police was launched in Lahore last month.

Senior police officers yesterday discussed the recruitment, training, and deployment policy in order to develop the Dolphin Force for the big cities.

Punjab Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera presided over the meeting at the central police. Additional-IGP (training) Usman Khatak, Additional-IG (Welfare and Finance) Sohail Khan, additional-IG (Operations) Arif Nawaz, Additional-IG (Establishment) Arif Mushtaq, DIG Headquarters, B.A Nasir, DIG, Azhar Hamid Khokhar, Sulman Chaudhry, Jan Muhammad, Ahmed Ishaq Jahangir, and AIG Monitoring Waqas-ul-Hassan were also present on this occasion besides others.
Lahore DIG (Operations) Dr Haider Ashraf and SP Dolphin Force Syed Karrar Hussain briefed the police chief about the policy to recruit and train the Dolphin Force. Initially, the pilot project would be extended to four cities including Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad and Gujranwala.

Last month, seven hundred cadets had passed out of the Lahore police training college to join the first-ever Dolphin Squad, a unique patrolling force to exclusively fight street-crimes in Lahore.

A replica of the Turkish national police, the Dolphin Force is equipped with heavy bikes and modern gadgetry. Some Turkish police officers assisted the Punjab authorities for months in raising the new patrolling units. Police officers say they believe the non-stop patrolling by Dolphin units on busy roads and in narrow streets will surely downgrade the crime rate in the metropolis.
DIG (Operations) Dr Haider Ashraf while talking to The Nation yesterday said that the crime rate would further decrease across the province particularly in the big cities when the Dolphin Force would start patrolling there. “Following its successful launch in Lahore, the project is being extended to other districts of the province. This initiative will definitely help police maintain peace in the densely populated districts,” Haider Ashraf said.

The operations police chief said the new patrolling police units would not only create a soft image of the police but also would create a sense of security among the citizens.

The provincial government had announced the establishment of this patrolling police in June 2014. The first batch comprising 688 Dolphin police cadets completed weeks-long training by the end of March. The new squads are deployed in different parts of the metropolis to fight against criminals involved in street crimes.

According to the SOP devised for the dolphin force, a squad of two motorcycles with four policemen patrols on city roads to fight criminals. The successful launch of this force would not only help control street crimes in the big cities but also improve the consecutive patrolling and picketing system in the province, police officers believes.

At yesterday’s meeting, the officers also discussed budget proposals and the recruitment policy to introduce the new force in the sprawling cities.

According to a police spokeswoman, it was also decided in the meeting that the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan regarding the “out of turn” promotion cases would be implemented in its true letter and spirit. The top cops also reviewed the progress on another project regarding the establishment of front desks in 202 police stations of 13 districts of Punjab.

Early this year, the provincial police department demoted as many as 3,700 junior officers in the light of the verdict of the country’s top court. But a good number of such police officers are still occupying important postings across the Punjab province. This selective implementation of the court verdict triggered uncertainty and rift among thousands of officers of the largest law-enforcement agency. The move came after the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared “out of turn” promotions as illegal.

Similarly, demoted police officials of the rank of DSP are posted as District Police Officers in Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin, Khushab district and SP CIA in Lahore. According to officials, the demoted officers would be removed from senior positions once their seniorities are re-fixed.