A thought leader and an action catalyzer rolled into one – Anil Puri is a rare combination of a visionary, and one who has mastered the art of strategic and tactical thinking to the core. He has been using this combination to seed new ideas and to lead them to their implementations on ground. This has been a consistent feature of his career. Here he writes about the role of the private security industry in smart policing, and a unique initiative taken by the CAPSI Chairman Kunwar Vikram Singh on the role of PSI vis-à-vis the public police relations and community safety.
Modern smart cities necessitate, and are witnessing integrations at various levels. A modern Indian city embodies people, knowledge, resources, finances, democratic, political and cultural values, and various other relatable aspects that make it ‘smart.’ These constituent elements can be classified as asset groups, or capital such as intellectual, social, technical, environmental, cultural, leisure, and/ or financial capital. In a smart city, policing is not limited just to safeguarding lives and infrastructure, it also includes the safeguarding of data and information. Smart citizens are interconnected via smart phones and numerous other gadgets. Today many cities utilize smart energy meters, security devices and smart appliances. Homes, cars, public venues and other social systems are on the path of full connectivity thanks to Internet of Things (IoT). However – alongside all these given here – there is also a conspicuous surge in the complexity of the risks and threats in smart cities. Thus, a smart and integrated system of policing is the dire need for the modern smart cities to ensure safety of public, businesses and critical infrastructure, as well as prompt and proactive emergency responders and disaster recovery systems.
The requirement of the modern police forces per se was well conceived and appropriately decrypted by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the acronym ‘SMART’ while addressing a national conference of DGPs at Guwahati in 2018. The each letter of the word stands respectively for – strict but sensitive, modern and mobile, alert and accountable, reliable and responsive, and techno-savvy and trained. Very few could think that it was a concept which would give a major fillip to his pet project of smart cities. He emphasized that a professionally efficient, technologically enabled, and socially sensitive police upholds the ‘rule of law’ and human rights in all situations, and also engages optimally with the community.
The Homeland Security 2018 – an event organized by FICCI on smart policing held during 26 -27 July 2018 focused on live issues of predictive policing, geo-intelligence led policing and emergency response, which triggered many states to establish infrastructures and technology driven systems in line with Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) and Nationwide Emergency Response System ( NERS) at state level.
Wide ranging deliberations during 14th Annual Conference of CAPSI and APDI on 15 and 16 November 2019 dedicated a fullfledged session on the role of private security industry towards public police relations and community safety. On that occasion, KG Balakrishnan, the Ex-Chief Justice of India, who is the Chairman of an NGO called ‘Public Police,’ conferred an additional charge on Kunwar Vikram Singh, Chairman – CAPSI, and appointed him the ‘President’ of the Public Police organization to carry forward the mission.
This is a proud moment for CAPSI and the entire private security industry. Being a member of the Governing Council and National Vice President of CAPSI – I personally take this opportunity to felicitate him for the honour bestowed upon him and assure him of the support of the CAPSI members and all the stakeholders who are part of the value chain in realizing this mission. I am confident that the security guards who are the main stay of the PSI will definitely play a key role in augmenting the data base of intelligence in the process of prevention of crime and creation of safe and secure environment. This initiative is bound to bridge the gap of poor police to citizen ratio and complete the entire spectrum of preventive and predictive policing under the ambit of SMART policing.
Anil Puri, CMD
