Mumbai Cops To Take Help From Dabbawalas To Tackle Terrorism

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… the cops conducted meetings with over 200 home delivery dabbawalas and requested them to monitor suspicious people and movements since they interact with hundreds of people on daily basis and visit dozens of places to deliver tiffins… "There are thousands of dabbawalas in the city who roam around in various areas whole day. They can be of great help. We have asked them to become our ears and eyes.… We have taught them on how to recognize/identify a suspicious man or activity in their surroundings… Not only terrorists, they can provide information about robbers, criminals and anti-social elements in the area. They will be rewarded for their help to the police and their service to the Mumbaikars,"

Link

Points to consider:

• If cops can recruit dabbawalas for gathering information, can't the anti-social/national elements use the same dabbawalas to be their carriers OR to relay misinformation?
• The concept of reward could potentially lead the dabbawalas to falsify information.
• After how many false alarms or irrelevant tips will the police department stop relying on information received from the dabbawalas?
• If the police department can give training to 200 dabbawalas, what is stopping the cops from training say 10-20 individuals in every locality/colony? That way they could have even more eyes and ears and foot soldiers.
• Won't this news story serve as a warning to the 'anti-social/national' elements?

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[Sarcasm]

Perhaps in the next media reports, the media should highlight details of upcoming raids planned by the police department. Then there can be a follow up story that provides details of the confidential informants

[/Sarcasm]