I remember, as a kid, there used to be this TVC: Dilli Police, Dilli Police…

Why did DP require a communication initiative? To bridge the trust gap and change its imagery. But seems nothing has changed. Still, people don’t trust the police. Still, parents tell their crying kid: Chup ho ja nahin toh police pakad ke le jayegi.

The most visible police is the Traffic Police. And I still find them not manning a broken red light crossing, which is left to chaos, but hiding behind a tree at the next working red light just 200 metres away, to catch an offender biker who’s jumped a red light. Not defending the offender here. But why does the biker need to jump the red light in the first place? Because this corrupt officer wasn’t doing his duty. He has left the previous red light in chaos and delayed somebody by 5-10 minutes. So that leaves everyone into breaking the system to cover up that lost time.

I am still scared of approaching Delhi Police. And what happened in the city recently — in Nov/Dec 2019 and February 2020 — reminds me a parallel in what’s happening in Hong Kong.