BENGALURU: The City police have received an overwhelming response from Bengalureans to work with the police as voluntary civil police wardens in implementing the week-long lockdown, which began on Tuesday night. “Around 8,000 people have registered at the Bengaluru City police website — bcp.gov.in,” said a senior city police officer.“Their credentials are being verified. Some of them are already on the job with the cops,” he added. Once their credentials are verified by the jurisdictional police, they are being briefed by the designated police sub-inspector, who is also the community liaison officer.
City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao on Tuesday evening tweeted, inviting “physically fit n service minded residents of Bengaluru, both men and women, between the age of 18 to 45 to volunteer as civil police warden to help the local police in regulation and enforcement of anti-Covid measures.” People had started registering soon after they read his tweet.
“Volunteers will be required to work along with the police for various duties such as manning the checkposts, night patrol and mobile rounds among other duties as per their availability and convenience. Civil wardens will be working with their jurisdictional police and will be briefed by the area police station. The objective is to pool in local resources for community policing for healthcare-related work,” said the officer.
Around 2,500 city police personnel are off-duty because of Covid-19. “Many of them have been placed under quarantine. Over 500 police personnel have tested positive so far in the city. Those over 50 years of age or with co-morbid conditions have been asked to work from home as precautionary measures. Civil Defence volunteers were pooled in by the Labour Department and BBMP for Covid-related work. We had to raise the civil police wardens from among the public,” said the officer.
The volunteers are from all walks of life; mostly students and other professionals, who are willing to spare a few hours every day as police wardens. “Many of them have worked with us during the initial lockdown days and are familiar with the work,” the officer added.