Police stations in Chandigarh 'certified'

Chandigarh, June 12 : One is aware of products and services being ISO certified, but have you heard of entire police station of a state or union territory being given a certification to be of international standard?

Yes! Chandigarh's police department has gained ISO certification for all of its police stations thus making it the first one in India.

All eleven police stations in the city were awarded ISO 9001:2000 certificates in March 2008, following a successful exercise of instituting a special squad of tourist-friendly cops.

The changeover is a great boon for visitors like Rajiv Bedi, who need have no qualms visiting police stations.

"Four to five years ago, we used to fear going to a police station. Now, things have changed. We are receiving police cooperation readily. Without fear, we are coming here to help and the response is most praiseworthy," said Bedi.

All the police stations here have standardized policies and procedures, which include world-class infrastructure and cleanliness as the priorities.

Separate rooms have been established for all investigating officers. There is easy accessibility to multiple records for both the officers and the public while visiting a police station to avail any kind of service.

Moreover, transparency of operations has been given a complete new meaning.

"As far as taking legal action and strict legal action is concerned, we are very clear. ISO certification does not mean that on legal issues we are lenient to anybody or we are being flexible. Infect, we are being more professional. We are trying to standardize things so that the discretion, which after results in criticism of the police, we have to reduce," said S S Srivastava, Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh.

Moreover, there is an attitudinal change among the policemen. The services rendered by them are streamlined following technical changes.

Though the Chandigarh police is in a position to offer consultancy services to police force in other parts of the country, they are duty bounded to maintain the ISO status.

For the Chandigarh police, it is a matter of faith, which it has earned in recent years, which has brought about this changing attitude and capabilities. (ANI)