Theft and mugging have become a sort of accepted occurrence in our day to day life, and given the last few months of turmoil, the rate of such street crimes has increased exponentially. In most cases, these crimes do not get reported even when they are, no one hardly expects to find his or her stolen possession.
To stop such incidents at the scene of the crime, Dhaka Metropolitan Police have decided to arm Dhaka’s Traffic Police with small firearms. More often than not these officers lay witness to theft and mugging but are at the same handicapped position as the rest of the bystanders. The weapon of choice till now for the Traffic Police have been the trusty stick with a large girth. Most of the time it is used to bash the behinds of the buses illegally parked to pick up passengers, or rickshaws needed to be apprehended.
The stick is not quite enough to instill the threat of capture in the hearts of petty criminals who know the streets more than anyone, and take advantage of the surrounding crowds as a cover to camouflage themselves after completing their heist.
Given the severity of the challenges of identifying such criminals in the first place let alone catching them, it is a matter of wonder how even a gun could come in handy to stop the crime in the moment.
However, it is true that fear of retaliation in the form of bullets might make the thieves more weary and may even deter some of them from committing such acts in the future, so even though this decision has its future positive impacts, the question of adequate training, proper usage and other factors are still a matter of concern for the citizens interacting with the traffic police everyday.