Police stations on the move

Punjab's launch of 33 mobile police stations, including six dedicated "Pink" units for women, seems like a good attempt to make it easier for citizens to approach law enforcement authorities. The initiative offers 14 services, from FIR registration to driving licences, and will visit different neighbourhoods, along with universities and colleges, on fixed schedules. This will be of great benefit for anyone who has to get some work done at a police station, but especially for women, who have long hesitated to enter male-dominated police stations to report harassment or domestic violence and may find women's police stations too hard to reach. By saving time and travel costs for citizens in remote areas, the scheme could genuinely bridge the public-police divide. But the biggest problem for the Punjab Police is not accessibility. It is the Punjab Police. The law enforcers are notorious for corruption within the ranks. Almost 85,000 complaints were lodged against the force in the first seven months of this year, with nearly 15,000 centred on corruption and bribery. Surveys consistently rank Punjab Police as Pakistan's most corrupt provincial department. Mobile stations may make it easier to file a report, but if the underlying culture of impunity - where cases are refused registration and investigations are botched for a price - remains untouched, the vans will merely become new venues for old abuses. Critics will also question the cost. The 33 units require vehicles, technology and specialised staff, all funded by taxpayers. While the benefits could potentially be huge, that is still an assumption. The expenditure is already a fact. To ensure the taxpayer gets value for money, the exercise needs genuine accountability, with merit-based hiring and staffing and independent oversight. The mobile police stations could be of great value, but that value can only be realised if provincial leaders in parliament and at the Central Police Office recognise that no fleet of vans can substitute for the difficult work of reforming the institution.