SAANJH Helpline Mobile Numbers:
+91-94177-00198, 00298, 00398
Email:-projectsaanjh@gmail.com
Community Policing in Punjab has been adopted as a philosophy and not as a
programme and draws inspiration from the insight of the visionary Robert Peel
that the Police are the public and the public is the police. In this philosophy, police
and community collaborate to firstly, identify needs and problems of the
community and then, jointly work towards finding solutions to the community
problems while meeting aspirations of the community. It is a philosophy which
expands the scope of policing from unidimensional crime fighting to a more
elaborate, multidimensional role of consultative, deliberative, decentralized
decision making and problem solving, involving the community. Prof. David
Bayley, renowned policing expert makes a valid point about Community Policing
when he says that the problem with policing in most countries is that it is
centralized at Headquarters and foils to accommodate diversity of conditions in
different localities requiring different approaches. In his view, which is echoed in
the Saanjh approach, Community Policing, when genuinely implemented,
transfers powers over strategies from people in Headquarters to people in
operational positions such as SHO's who are able to determine the character of
policing in a particular area with the involvement of the local community.
In order to respond to the expectations of an enlightened public in the 2lst century,
a need was felt in the State of Punjab, for an attitudinal transformation to bring
about a service orientation in the police force. Community Policing experiments
by individual officers were attempted in Punjab in the past, but the concept of
Community Policing in the state, was reinvented and provided an institutional
framework in the year 2011. 'SAANJH' a collaborative effort of Police and
Community takes the philosophy down to the grassroots through sub divisional
SAANJH KENDRAS and POLICE STATION SAANJH KENDRAS.