Beauty is the wisdom of police

BANGALORE: Beauty is the wisdom of women... So goes a Chinese proverb. But in Karnataka, beauty is the wisdom of police.To tackle rowdy elements, police are emphasising on good looks of its personnel.They feel cops dealing with rowdies should be fit, slim and, of course, handsome.The police are now chanting a new mantra to tackle rowdies. That is — all cops dealing with rowdies should appear presentable.The idea behind this is that if cops look like students, techies or any other professional and the rowdies would not suspect that they are being watched. In a meeting held recently, City Police Commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji has directed all DCPs of the city to handpick well-groomed cops to gather intelligence about rowdies.Earlier, it was believed that the police should sport a rough look to deal with rowdies. Mirji has now mooted the idea that cops who do not sport a policelook can gather better information.Meanwhile, senior police officials are keen on physical fitness of their officers, who deal with rowdy elements, on a day-to-day basis.In an endeavour to build the physique of the officers, it has now been made compulsory for officers below the age of 40 to work out at least thrice a week.Officers above the age of 40 have been given an exception, however, if they want they can voluntarily come up and keep themselves fit.The officers are made to run for about 20 minutes, followed by stretches, pushups, crunches, calf-raises, squats, chin-ups and other simple exercises.City’s Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar, said that it always feels good if physical fitness is maintained and it was inevitable for officers, especially those who deal with rowdies.“Cops dealing with rowdies are vulnerable to attacks. To fight them, physical fitness is a must. So, we thought of making physical exercises compulsory for such officers.The police is also trying to improve the mode of gathering intelligence.South division’s Deputy Commissioner of Police Sonia Narang, said that the police were assigning the job to cops with good aptitude skills. “With good intelligence gathering we could curb rowdy activities efficiently.This selection of cops has yielded good results in the past year,” she added.