Complain to the police online

REPUBLICA

KATHMANDU, Jan 20: At a time when cops are increasingly blamed for acting outside their professional ethics and even troubling the public, Nepal Police Headquarters has started a new facility for receiving complaints about any such instance through internet.

With a view to better facilitate the lodging of complaint, the police headquarters has decided to have a system where public can lodge their grievances online.
The step was taken after it was felt that the provision to be at police office in person to register a complain against the officials has not been effective enough.

Nepal Police´s official website www.nepalpolice.gov.np has been updated with a link for the public to lodge complaints.

“We have opted for the online method because we found that people hesitated to complain for the fear of getting their identities disclosed,” said an official at the headquarters.

The complaint section is administered by the secretariat of Inspector General of Police (IGP) at the headquarters and is headed by Superintendent of Police (SP).

Officials said that the IGP secretariat will look into complaints received online on the basis of authenticity of the details furnished by the persons lodging complaints. “We will investigate the complaints and, if necessary, forward them to line agencies for further investigation,” said police spokesman Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Navaraj Dhakal.

Dhakal assured that identities of those who lodge complaints will be kept secret.

Other units of Nepal Police have been receiving complaints about cops from the public usually by hotline telephone services. In the capital alone, more than four dozen cops have faced departmental actions for their untoward activities over the period of two years after the establishment of Professional Standard Unit (PSU) at the Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu.