Keeping B’luru safe: Awareness the key

Two days after an explosion at a popular café rocked the peace of Bengaluru sending shivers down the spine of city residents, one is tempted to ask the question whether we are adequately prepared to prevent such horrifying incidents from happening?

For a city spread across a vast area of 740 sq. kilometres, the bustling metropolis has a 20,000 strong police force which also includes a few thousands who have to be deployed for traffic duty on its many roads and streets.

Policing twelve and a half million residents is obviously not an easy task; and anything which happens in the IT City immediately garners worldwide attention.

A huge chunk of Bengalureans are from outside the state who have come here in search of job opportunities and for other reasons and so the anonymity factor surely adds to the many problems the city’s police force faces in keeping crime under check.

Police sources say that crimes have been rising - whether they are robberies, assaults or murders.

What is obviously needed are more personnel, police stations particularly in the newly added outskirts, sophisticated modes of training to deal with hi-tech crimes including cyber crime and financial frauds.

And to keep a watch on all that is happening in the city, CCTV cameras are needed at all establishments which witness a public presence; the question is whether all our business and commercial establishments have such cameras installed at vital points to detect any suspicious movement or behavior which could help prevent a crime before it occurs.

Take the case of the Rameshwaram Café blast; police sources say a man wearing a cap and a mask entered the eatery, placed the bag containing the explosive device and quietly vanished in a bus.

The explosive went off about an hour later injuring about ten people; luckily, none of them have life threatening injuries.

The question is whether the explosion could have been avoided if someone had noticed the bag and alerted the authorities in time?

It is more than clear from the manner in which the modern world is evolving with criminals adopting hitech modes to carry out their sinister operations that the police force alone cannot prevent crimes occurring in every nook and corner of the city.

People have a great role and responsibility in augmenting their level of awareness when in a public space for there are always evil elements lurking around trying to be the spoilers of our peace.

The collective good is what matters the most and in a heavily crowded city, this is an absolute must.

Campaigns will have to be conducted by the cops in association with civic bodies to make citizens aware of the need to be vigilant and keep their eyes open to any kind of suspicious activity in their neighbourhood.

Resident associations, trade and industry bodies, youth and student groups and everyone else who has a stake in ensuring a peaceful Bengaluru, should be roped in for such initiatives.

The police will also have to make sure that they are regarded as a friendly force intended to safeguard citizens and save their lives so that people are more forthcoming with any information they have.

The days of the cops and citizens working in isolation are over for the world has become more complicated and crime too have evolved, making the tracking and busting of criminal operatives an intrinsically difficult task.

For a city which lives and breathes IT 24/7, coming up with ingenious methods to keep criminals at bay is none too difficult provided meticulous planning is done to monitor all sensitive spots and establishments.

But what is most needed are coordinated efforts by the police, people and trade and industry bodies to remind those with an evil eye that they can no longer get away with their reckless acts.