Community Policing

Varun Kapoor has done path breaking work in the field of community policing too. From the outset he worked towards the involvement of general public in policing activities. This not only builds the image of the department but also acts as a bridge between the citizenry and their security apparatus and hence increases their confidence in the processes and activities being undertaken by the Police.

Again as Chief of the Indore City police he launched a novel scheme for participation of citizens in police activities related to policing the urban areas. He called it the “Nagar Suraksha Samiti” and its structure and functions were clearly formulated by him. The three tier of the committee were at the Police Beat Level; Police Station Level and Police Circle (CSP) level. Active and interested citizens were included and the formal launching was done in November 1995 by the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Digvijay Singh at a grand function in Abhay Khel Prashal at Indore. Subsequently the success of this formation ensured that this spread to all the urban area of the state of Madhya Pradesh and was given a legal backing in the year 1999 in the form of Madhya Pradesh Gram avam Nagar Raksha Samiti Act.

Another project launched by him was called the “Save-a-Life-Line”. This was a suicide prevention helpline. Those were the days of land line phones and to prevent suicide by depressed and afflicted citizens Varun Kapoor worked out a detailed plan and launched this Helpline in 1996 at Ravindra Natya Grah Indore in a spectacular function attended by the Honourable Judges of the High Court of Indore. The project involved a 24 hour round the clock helpline manned by police personnel and psychologists at a special chamber provided for this purpose at the Police Head Quarters at Indore. This was a concept much ahead of its time. Today ther is a proliferation of such help lines for various types of citizen support but at that time the “Save-a-Life-Line” was a novel and highly beneficial program of the Indore Police.

During his posting as SP of Ratlam he undertook some highly appreciable community policing initiatives. One was the “Matra Chhaya Abhiyaan”. In this a police team visited major villages in the rural areas and took along with them a team of medical doctors. There they carried out health check up of children and distributed free medicines for the afflicted children. The doctors were provided by the district health department and the medicines were sponsored by IPCA Laboratories a leading Pharmaceutical company with its factory situated in the district. This was a highly successful mission to build bridges for police in the rural areas.

Another very necessary initiative was called the ”Arogya Shishu Abhiyaan”. Under this the district police organised major camps in colleges for the inoculation of girl students against the Rubella virus. This inoculation prevents this virus from striking women during pregnancy as the child born of such an infected mother is mentally challenged. This was another noble mission of community policing and it served to build a positive image of the police in the minds of the women in the region. In Ratlam he also organised yearly Antakshari programs on a lavish scale and legends of this music based gaming, like Annu Kapoor graced the finale of these competitions. The youth and artists in the district thus got engaged with the Police and that had another positive impact on the community. He also organised annual motor vehicle competitions called “Moto-Cross” for spreading traffic awareness in the public at large through community involvement and engagement.