PUNE: “In today’s era, it’s the teachers who can shape the future of children in a better way,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ashok Morale on Saturday. 

He was addressing 281 principals of schools and colleges at a workshop organised for them at the Police Commissioner’s Office in Camp. It was part of a community policing initiative. 

“The students spend more time with teachers than their parents. They have better rapport with the children,” he added. 

The cops educated the principals about various crimes including cyber cases, effects of drugs on children, good touch, bad touch for girls, and safety issues of students. They were shown videos about misuse of social media and bad effects of drugs. Awareness of traffic rules was also discussed.  

DCP (Crime) Bachchan Singh informed the principals about various initiatives of Pune city police.

Bhagyashree Deshpande, Principal of New Law College, took a session about advantages and disadvantages of the Internet and social media. Principal Shrikrishna Savargao informed the gathering about functioning of Police Kaka/Didi, who meet school children for better communication to sniff out any crime. 

Police Inspector Shilpa Chavan, in-charge of community policing, said, “We discussed various crimes and how we can prevent them. Now police teams will interact with students at schools and colleges, to take the message forward. We will use PowerPoint presentation and videos to convey our message in a better way.”

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Education Officer Deepak Mali, Project Coordinator Shashikala Randhve, Police Inspector Vijaya Karande, Inspector (Traffic Branch) Rajesh Puranik, Inspector Panmand from Cybercrime Cell, were also present.