FOP - a solution for VOP Protection

According to the World Summit on Social Development, 1992," The best investments in social and economic policy are those that empower the individual." FOP empowers and enables the individual citizen to contribute his/her mite to personal, local and national security. As the catchword of Homeland Security in the USA post 9/11 is " See something, say something", FOPs are sensitised to give priority to national security. They also contribute to local security by being watchful, doing night patrols on foot with or without accompanying policemen. They become more aware and conscious of how best to safeguard their own personal security. They think globally, act locally. Acting locally does not necessarily mean being involved only in police related activities but it could also mean doing some kind of community service. As another friend of mine from Australia says, " Wisdom is being involved in the local community."Very Ordinary Person Protection If our nation consists of 1.2 billion people and if one million are VIPs of one kind or other, the remaining are the faceless, nameless billion plus VOPs or Very Ordinary Persons. The VIPs exist for the sake of the VOPs and not the other way around. The protection of the VOPs is the ultimate and immediate goal and priority of the police and security forces. Having said this much, VOP protection is the most neglected aspect of security management today in the country as can be seen in the incident of gang rape and murder in Delhi recently. There is a need to focus on VOP protection and develop systems for intelligence, deterrence, prevention and detection of crimes and violence against VOPs. In this context, FOP or Friends of Police is the solution to better organize the protection of VOPs. While one cannot ever provide one policeman to protect every singly citizen, we can mobilize millions of ordinary law abiding citizens as FOPs. Soon after the Mumbai terror attack, the well known former tennis player Ramanathan Krishnan was mentioning to his companion during their morning walk, “ There is an organization called Friends of Police that enables citizens to contribute to security.” To this day Ramanathan Krishnan may not know that his conversation was heard and reported by a passing FOP. The presence of FOPs who cannot be identified greatly increases the flow of information and intelligence while multiplying the much needed goodwill for the police. Friends of Police will act as a force multiplier for the police across the nation. If the number of law abiding citizens in the country is one billion plus, we will automatically have one billion FOPs even if they do not come to their respective police stations to formally register. Imagine the deterrence created by a billion pair of eyes,ears, brains, hands and legs working in sync to strengthen internal security. It is a cost effective and holistic security solution. The idea of FOP will spread like virally like a meme to create change in the police towards the law abiding citizens and change in the attitude of the law abiding citizens towards the police.