Mangaluru: The ‘Cop of the Month, award with a trophy presented to Mulki police station cops ’by Mangaluru North subdivision ACP Srinivas Gowda with a word of appreciation.
The Mulki police station arrested a gang of women from Tamil Nadu wanted in a series of chainsnatching incidents that were reported a decade ago. While for the sleuths involved in the case, this would generally pass off with a word of appreciation, the cop behind this arrest was awarded with a trophy, with his name inscribed on it.
While the awardee would certainly flaunt this trophy before guests and relatives with an air of pride and satisfaction, his colleagues would work hard to earn one such trophy the next time.
The idea to reward sleuths with notable achievements with a trophy was introduced by Mangaluru North subdivision ACP Srinivas Gowda. The initiative is named ‘Cop of the Month,’ and was introduced on a trial and error basis in January this year, and its modalities have now been streamlined.
“This concept of rewarding outstanding performers in the lower rung has been there for quite some time in Vijayapura and some other districts. However, in most cases, their names are either displayed on the notice board of the respective police station or they are handed a certificate of appreciation. I wanted to take this ahead and give them something they could really be proud of and identify themselves with,” Gowda said.
“What this essentially does is that it serves as a great motivator not only to the awardee, but also to all the sleuths in that police station,” he said.
Every month, each police personnel from all the six police stations under Mangaluru North subdivision is chosen based on certain criteria, which are both qualitative as well as quantitative. “We take several factors into consideration such as their attendance, discipline, how they handle their beats, how they build and maintain relationships with the public in their beat area, how much knowledge they amass about rowdies in their area, the warrants they serve and the assistance they provide to officers in the investigation and so on,” Gowda said.
Rotary Club has come forward to bear the expenses of the 72 trophies – six per month – for this year. Of the 12 awardees so far, three have been women.
“The awardees for the month of March and onwards will be felicitated by city police commissioner Sandeep Patil himself,” Gowda said, adding this will further boost the morale of his people.