|
 | WRITE STUFF: The constables prepare reports gathered from police stations in the southern region and ensure they reach newspapers before deadline time.
PIC/ BIPIN KOKATE |
For three months, constables Dattaray Nagre of Azad Maidan police, Sanjay Sawant of LT Marg, Laxmikant Nijap of V P Road and Arun Sawant of Yellow Gate have been working on a unique task.
They have been roped in to act as liaisons between 16 police stations in the southern region of the city and the media to publicise the achievements of the police.
The project, a brainchild of Additional Commissioner (South) Region Dr K Venkatesham, was started as a pilot project in December 2007.
It has reached a stage where these constables are the single point source for the media in this area.
The group was initially briefed about the importance of the media and public relations and effective communication with the public through mass media.
“It was observed that the media was quick to highlight the negative side of policing, but would seldom write about good detection work or police events. “Our aim is to keep the media appraised of the good work we do,” said Nagre.
The group is expected to visit police stations in the region daily and ferret cases that involved good detection, or events organised by the force and publicise them. They start their day by liasing with reporters from newspapers.
After recording case details from factsheets at police stations, they prepare reports and ensure they reach the newspapers before deadline time. The reports are usually written in Marathi or Hindi with catchy headlines.
“We have started reading newspapers to understand the manner in which the news is produced. We use police language in the copy, since we are not good with the lingo newspapers use. The same copy is circulated to English newspapers too,” said Sawant.
The four constables, who have managed to get over 200 articles, are also answerable in case of negative coverage.
| 
