Governance Now Maharashtra Police Summit

Agile Policing in times of Pandemic

25th February 2021

Governance Now, India's premier publication on public policy and governance from, Sri Adhikari Brothers Group is organising Maharashtra Police Summit on 25th February 2021. The summit focuses on “Agile Policing in times of Pandemic."

In India, Policing had already been grappling with various challenging but this pandemic has accelerated those challenges. As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps in the country, police forces were thrust into new roles as they engage and enforce new policies and laws governing societal behaviours. Social distancing, restrictions on movement within states, and new rules and regulations on who can work, and from where have turned lives upside down. These developments have added new tasks for police organisations. In addition, police organisations have to deal with operational duties while protecting themselves against infection.

A further significant challenge is to retain public trust through and beyond the crisis. This requires policing to be sensitive to the citizens, with greater situational awareness on the ground and more effective communications campaigns and dialogue with the public and businesses regionally and nationally. To address this challenge and closer participation and engagement of citizens as well as private organisations in the policing process, dialogue and communications have to be done well, and police actions need to be aligned to policy and reassure the public. While businesses are trying to return, as usual, communicating effectively and collaborating in public-private partnerships will provide a great opportunity for the police to come out of this crisis stronger and deliver greater safety and security to their communities.

Key Attendees

- Maharashtra Police