If a picture can say a thousand words, imagine what five pictures of defunct beat chowkies can say? They say that these chowkies are a waste of time and taxpayers’ money. Yesterday, this paper carried a front-page report on a number of police beat chowkies in different areas of the city. In every instance, they were being used for all things except what they were meant for — police watch.

The original purpose of these chowkies was to form key on-ground connects with the community, respond faster to crimes, form a rapport with residents and concentrate on intelligence gathering. While that may sound like extremely small tasks, those who know about policing will realize just how important the local policeman is in the pecking order. Even elite anti-terror units talk about how vital community policing is in fighting terror. It is very often the local policeman that is the first and vital breakthrough to sophisticated crime and terror plots.